Explanation

Xenobots have the ability to do a lot of things: walk, swim, transport material, and reproduce. The most critical thing to understand is that their "programming" is entirely within their form. With this more than ever, function follows form. People are very excited about the prospects of Xenobots because of their variety of benefits/uses:

• Can adapt to organic environments (e.g. the human body) without contaminating them with foreign substances. For instance, metal-based nanobots could pose a greater danger at end-of-life to a living organism when they stop functioning. We already have enough microplastics in us, why should we want more foreign material?

• Are self-powered like normal living things. Xenobots do not need a battery or any other form of power, and unlike nanobots, don't need chemical reactions or affinities to perform their tasks. They are entirely self-contained.

• Are small enough, but not too small. Xenobots are smaller than a millimeter across, which means that they can fit in places and interact with environments that many other robots would not be able to reach. However, Xenobots still exist at the macro-scale and can perform tasks which are otherwise limiting to single-celled beings.

• Can transport, clean, and tidy. Some of the most promising applications of Xenobots within the medical and environmental fields hinge on their ability to move and process materials. Whether it is fighting off an infection, attacking a cancer, or clearing an environmental disaster (e.g. an oil spill or plastic in the ocean), these tiny robots in the future could be programmed to do any of these tasks.

Currently, however, Xenobots are restricted to the research laboratory as their capabilities are being explored and developed. Researchers believe in the promising future of this technology and are working to perfect it to the point that it could be used for the aforementioned applications. For now, there exists limited understanding of how to program more complex behaviors and ensure safety. So until that happens, you'll be lucky to see one in a petri dish.