these is in a box were designed on a supercomputer at the university of vermont, and then biologists at tufts university brought them to life. researchers from both uvm and taps university were able to obtain living cells from frog embryos, repurposed them and assemble them into new forms of life. scientists behind a creation say they were not considered a robot, nor a species of animal, but new class of artifacts. they call it a living programmable organism. these in a box moved toward a target and had the capability to actually heal themselves. after being cut, the findings were published in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences . the said he touches on how application has evolved into many forms. will some involve growth within the body or organism like humans. self replication is able to assemble material in their environment and turn it into functional. self copies, as in a bots, are able to do the latter. once he's in a boss, find the cells, they are able to build copies of themselves. joshua bon guard, a computer scientist, part of the study says with the right d

because their behavior is definable by an artificial intelligence algorithm developed at the university of vermontnd the ai is helping us to define the stimuli that you have to give to the stem cells to make them assemble into synthetic machines with useful functions. >> just incredible the co-author of this study said the cells can be used as building blocks like a lego. what can be built? >> all kinds of things there's two basic areas of impact of this technology. one is as we get better at telling cells what they should be building, we can make useful synthetic machines they might be doing useful things in thecleaning out the environment. the other big application of this technology is that by learning how it is that we can convince a group of cells to build specific structures, we could really advance all of regenerative medicine. all of the problems of birth defects, traumatic injury, cancer, aging, all of this hangs on the ability to tell cells what they can be building. >> not to be a nay sayer at all but any concern that technology like this could lead to problems rather than solutions? >>

i have been a trustee of the university of vermont and other colleges, and it was ideologically diverse. we had legislators in both parties on the boards of trustees, as well. but that is why it is so difficult and so important. a student a half-century ago at middlebury college, and what is different today? more technology and better food. beyond that, there is a different climate in terms of free expression. i was the head of the young republicans, and i am an oddball and at a northeastern liberal institution, but nobody ever suggested i should not be heard. today, people are suggesting some voices not be heard. everybody has to understand how important it is. as my friend bernie sanders once asked when a controversial speaker came to our campus, what are we afraid of? let him speak. we have to adopt that attitude and recognize that the pursuit of knowledge means being exposed to a variety of viewpoints, even some that make us feel uncomfortable. i think if we keep that objective in mind, we can find a way to get there. gov. gregoire: i agree with jim. as i view it, having been the on

easterly your team looks at some of the excess death data during the ransom where attack on university of vermont health network. i was frankly quite surprised by the conclusion of that case study that ransom where attacks on hospitals are correlated significantly with lots of patient life. briefly, how is it that these ransom where attacks have that? >> congresswoman, that study looked broadly at excess deaths during the covid pandemic largely looking at what happens when hospitals are overwhelmed with icu patients suffering from covid. what were the excess deaths from other types of needed hospitalization for icu admittance is? so there were excess deaths from things like cancer, etc. we were highlighting during the course of that study transom where incidents have the potential to exacerbate the strain on hospitals and result in additional excess deaths and that is why it is incumbent upon hospital administrators to make sure they have the right level of cyber security in place and they are aware of potential for significant , they are prepared for what might happen should there hospitals the

of universities moving their finals online. now you've got another list, princeton, nyu, middlebury college in vermont. and the data coming out of the united kingdom is alarming because they're a few weeks ahead on this. today the united kingdom reporting a record number of cases. 88,376, which is the highest number of cases since the pandemic began in the uk. the outbreak there growing so fast that today the queen cancelled her pre-christmas family lunch. this onslaught comes as we are still learning about just how effective the vaccines even are against this new variant. just today a cdc advisory panel recommended pfizer and moderna's vaccines over johnson & johnson's vaccine. that's really significant because you're looking at 16 million americans who got the johnson & johnson shot. but one thing we do know is that hospitals are already hurting. just listen to one doctor describing the physical and emotional toll this surge is having. >> we are exhausted. and heartbroken, and terrified. many of us are starting to feel helpless because we've been living this crisis for so long. >> we're going to speak

of the omicron variant. princeton university is shifting all undergraduate final exams to a remote format so students can leave campus as soon as they are able. cornell, new york university, college in vermontre imposing similar safety rules. >>> now, so now with both the delta and omicron variants spreading in the u.s., how should you handle the holidays? dr. anthony fauci explains. >> one of the things you can do is try to restrict your activities to situations where you know the vaccination status of people, and that's easy to do. and people ask you, well, what about the family setting? if you're vaccinated, your family members are vaccinated, you should feel comfortable in the setting of the holiday season to have dinners and social events at home. people should not feel that that's not safe. i mean, nothing is 100%, but when you talk about the relative risk, when you're dealing with vaccinated and particularly boosted people, you can feel comfortable enjoying the holiday. >> dr. fauci also says breakthrough covid infections due to omicron are to be expected. but as of now, there is no need for a booster specifically designed for the variant. >>> still to come, covid cases here in the u

vermont has a universal recycling law banning food scraps from landfills and starting january 1st new york state will require businesses making two tons ofwaste per week. or more to recycle it. ashley strohmeyer fox news. in south san francisco. it was the police department against the fire department and a shopping spree at a grocery outlet store. ready set shop. and off they went. each team was given one minute to fill up a grocery card with the most expensive items they could find at the store owners. would then donate the combined amount to south san francisco's holiday food drive program. it's so important because our community does so much for us and it's you know, to give back. you know that that's kind of at our core right there. so this makes perfect sense. alright in the end, the firefighters card containing almost twice the cost of food as the police card that police guard had $1371 of firefighters . $2336 for a grand total of more than $3700 for the holiday food drive program. good work, alright cruiser moving to working to repair the holiday tree jack lenin square ahead of this weekend's tree lighting after an arson attack e