This is so cool yet so spooky and really fits the season change if we are being honest! The third state is a phenomenon when the cells of a dead organism can adopt new functions even after death that scientists have found. The authors focus on one particularly astounding study from Tufts University in Massachusetts, which extracted skin cells from deceased frog embryos and watched them reorganize into a new multicellular organism the paper called “xenobots.” Unlike some cells such as tumors or organoids that continually divide after death, these xenobots took on new behaviors beyond their biological roles. Studies have also found this ability in human lung cells, creating anthrobots capable of self-assembling and moving around.

The true outcomes of this are not super well understood nor are the mechanics but there is hope that it could lead to new novel treatments for various conditions. As a huge Criminal Minds fan it reminds me of Season 8, Episode 12 called Zugzwang. In this episode the unsub who wanted to pursue a PhD, before being rejected. The unsub believed her parents were not mentally ill but that spontaneous cell death lead to their deaths with her PhD focusing on the idea that cell death causes suicidal ideation.

Its not exactly the same thing but it is wild how we are discovering new things like a possible third state of life.