Paging Dean Koontz!

If this doesn't sound like the plot of Dean Koontz' next book (or, heck, myabe his previous one), I'll be the proverbial monkey's uncle...

"Living Robots Powered By Muscle," reads the BBC Headline:

Tiny robots powered by living muscle have been created by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The devices were formed by "growing" rat cells on microscopic silicon chips, the researchers report in the journal Nature Materials. Less than a millimetre long, the miniscule robots can move themselves without any external source of power.

The big question, of course is, are the bot-suckers alive? Professor Carlo Montemano, the little bitty fellas' creator (and known around the lab as God), thinks so:

Under a microscope, you can see the tiny, two-footed "bio-bots" crawl around...But when biological cells become attached to silicon — are they alive?

"They're absolutely alive," Professor Montemagno told BBC News. "I mean the cells actually grow, multiply and assemble — they form the structure themselves. So the device is alive."

The notion is likely to disturb many who already have concerns about nanotechnology.

Like, no kidding! Still, we consider Ann Curry to be a living organism, although she's certainly skating on the edge of several criteria. Now there's a plot from hell — Ann Curry meets the miniature rat-muscle 'bots!

Coming soon to the Discovery Channel, no doubt!