For over a century, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of the immortal flatworm. Now, an artificial intelligence has solved the puzzle in just 42 hours. The flatworm may not be the most complex creature on Earth, but it possesses a unique ability that could be of great benefit to medicine: if it is not eaten, the flatworm is immortal and can regenerate itself from injuries in a mysterious way. If researchers could understand the biological processes behind this ability, it could help millions of people. For example, lost limbs could grow back, and self-healing at the cellular level could help defeat Parkinson’s, cancer, and other diseases.
Scientists around the world have been trying to uncover the biological secret of the flatworm’s immortality for over a century. Over the years, they have cut off its head, cut it into numerous small pieces, and even irradiated every cell in its body, yet it always regenerated. The properties of this animal are so mysterious that scientists regularly gather at the International Flatworm Conference to exchange the latest research results.
Researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts have turned to artificial intelligence to solve the problem. They fed the computer with countless data from experiments over a century and the AI then developed a model of the exact functioning of the regenerating body parts. The AI simulated possible gene networks and modified them until it found a genetic model that fit all previous study results. The researchers consider the new model a major breakthrough in both biology and artificial intelligence research.
Although biologists consider the work of artificial intelligence groundbreaking, we are still years away from allowing AI to research autonomously. However, the experiment shows the enormous potential of artificial intelligence. The fact that an AI can be confronted with a scientific question and independently develop a theory to solve it without human help is truly sensational. And all of this was achieved without cutting a single worm.
