A 'Third State' Exists Between Life and Death--And That Suggests Your Cells Are Conscious, Some Scientists Say

[Judi Lynn]

A growing number of new studies have found that, at least for some cells, death isn’t the end, but the beginning of something wholly unexpected.

By Darren Orf
Published: Dec 17, 2025 11:53 AM EST

The biological cycle of our existence seems relatively straightforward: we’re born, we live, we die. The end. But when you examine existence at the cellular level, things get a bit more interesting. You, me, and all of the 108 billion or so Homo sapiens who’ve ever walked the Earth have all been our own constellation of some 30 trillion cells. Each of our bodies is a collective organism of living human cells and microbes working in cooperation to create what our minds view as “life.” However, a growing number of new studies have found that, at least for some cells, death isn’t the end. Instead, it’s possibly the beginning of something new and wholly unexpected.

A growing snowball of research concerning a new class of AI-designed multicellular organisms known as “xenobots” is gaining scientific attention for their apparent autonomy. In September 2024, Peter Noble, PhD, a microbiologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, along with Alex Pozhitkov, PhD, a bioinformatics researcher at the City of Hope cancer center, detailed this research on the website The Conversation.

Xenobots are cells that form new roles beyond their original biological function—for example, using hairlike cilia for locomotion rather than transporting mucus. Because they appear to reassemble into this new form and function, the authors argue that xenobots form a kind of “third state” of life, wherein cells can reorganize after the death of an organism to form something new. These forms likely wouldn’t materialize in nature, but xenobots show that cells have a surprising ability to adapt to changes in their environment. Experiments with human cells, or “anthrobots,” exhibit this behavior, too.

“Taken together, these findings … challenge the idea that cells and organisms can evolve only in predetermined ways,” the authors write in The Conversation. “The third state suggests that [an organism’s] death may play a significant role in how life transforms over time.”

The implications for these cellular robots, or biobots, are pretty big—imagine tailor-made medicines crafted from your own tissues to avoid a dangerous immune response. But they also form a complicated picture of what a cell actually is. At least, that’s what evolutionary biologist and physician William Miller thinks. He’s the co-author of the 2023 book The Sentient Cell , which explores ideas found in the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) theory suggesting that cells retain a kind of consciousness. Miller believes that xenobots are just another example of how we don’t give credit to the inherent cognitive—or even conscious—abilities of the cells that make up our bodies.

More:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a69797512/xenobots-conscious-cells/

Or:

removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a69797512/xenobots-conscious-cells/

[SheltieLover]

1. Ty for sharing!

[ananda]

2. This is not a new concept.

When I was in grad school I incorporated
ihis idea in one of my pspers.

I called this idea the thinking body.

I've always thought the body was much
more than the sum of its parts, but rather
a holistic entity where every part is a conscious
universe.

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. Did you say 'cenobites'?

Oh, my bad.

Thanks for posting this. I was having a conversation about this not too long ago.

[3825-87867]

4. Probably explains why people like trump

and Adolph and Caesar and Stalin keep coming back while every one else just floats away!
They're B-B-B-B-Bad to the bone!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. So IOW, you're dying but not dead.

There is a space of time where you consciously know you're not exactly alive and you're waiting for the phases to make you dead. You can hear and sense your surroundings. But you can't respond.

[Mr.Bee]

6. "There is a fifth dimension"

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man ...
a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.
It is the middle ground between light and shadow,
between science and superstition,
and it lies between the pit of man's fears
and the summit of his knowledge.
This is the dimension of imagination.”
― Rod Serling