A team of scientists has created an artificial stingray that moves with the help of living muscle cells and is the movement is controlled by light.
The study, published in the journal Science describes how the same technique could potentially be used to create an artificial heart. Researchers Kit Parker from the Harvard University's Wyss Institute believes this to be a training exercise and understands that even though he wants to create a heart using the same technique, the results cannot be achieved overnight.
Parker further said that an artificial heart made up of living cells would behave more like a natural heart, unlike other previous versions of the mechanical pumps-type of artificial heart created by scientists around the world. The heart made up from artificial muscles would be able to grow and change by itself over a period of time.
According to Parker, there is a reason why the heart is built in a way it is. The research team from the Harvard University is, therefore, trying to replicate the same characteristics and properties as much as possible.
For people, a heart and a stingray may look strikingly different. However, both of them actually have to deal with the problems associated with fluid and motion. While a stingray has to propel through water, the human heart has to propel blood throughout the human body.
The idea struck Parker's mind when he took his daughter to an aquarium a few years ago. The exhibit allowed the visitors to touch the stingray as they swim by.
When his daughter puts her hand under water to touch the stingray, the fish just evaded her hand with a quick flick of her pectoral fin. Parker realized that this sought of behavior is what human heart does all the time as it changes the blood pressure or flows within a split of a second.
Therefore, he decided to design an artificial stingray that could help him learn how to replicate animal's ability to respond quickly to the changing conditions.
