If your hope for a new and great America tomorrow includes a pancake-sized robot that can jump on its own, then congratulations, your wait is over.

According to the New York Times, “a group of scientists designed a tortilla-shaped robot that can jump several times per second and is seven times the height of more than half a centimeter. They report that the robot has a flattened tennis ball. It’s so big and weighs the same as a paper clip, so it can perform these feats flexibly without any traces of feet."

I don't know why, but whenever I hear authority figures comparing the size of certain foreign objects with food, I get nervous. Whether it is a pea-sized hail or a grapefruit-sized tumor, it is not a good thing. 

Good things cannot be compared with food. You will never hear anyone talking about diamonds the size of rice crackers.

Nevertheless, the scientists seem to be very satisfied with themselves. Even competing scientists call it "a smart idea" and "an important contribution to the field of soft robotics."

It's great for them. It may also help to wash away one of my little troubles, which is the assumption that—everyone from NASA to Hollywood—alien life must be more or less similar to ours. Even the craziest science fiction writer or military strategist believes that other intelligent life forms must have some combination of arms, legs, heads and eyeballs. 

These aliens have no pancakes, no tortillas. Therefore, if we are invaded by the IHOP planet, it will leave us unprepared.

Scientists are also working hard to come up with a practical application for jumping the disk. They say that over time, the disc may be able to jump over ditches and rocks on its own. So we must rely on it. It's great to know that Einstein's general theory of relativity has finally caught up with the Jeep Wrangler. 

I am not saying that the flipping technique will not have very good uses. If they can easily come up with an automatic egg flip, I will go all out. 

At least this involvement in robotics seems quite harmless, unlike the related news reported in the Washington Post headline last week, "Research claims that these living robots made of frog cells can now reproduce."

If you can fall asleep after reading that article, then you are a better person than me. According to the story, "These alien robots, named after the African frog Xenopus laevis, can already move around, exhibit collective behavior and heal themselves. A study released on Monday showed that cell clusters can also be designed to last for at least five generations."

wonderful. The experimental line I can see can't go wrong. But I think we can rest assured that they are studying frog cells, not human cells.

"There is no theory that prevents us from making these with human cells," said Sam Kriegman, the author of the study.

So why do we do this? These living robots may one day catch poison in your system or deliver the medicine to a target part of your body.

Of course. You can also catch moon moths with your tongue.

I have no doubt that these cells may be programmed to do some good things. What bothers me is the "copy" part. Scientists call it "the dream of robots." Maybe, maybe not. Your neighbors may be the best and most polite people on the planet, but think about their children.

"If we start to create these increasingly intelligent things," Krigman admits, "at some point, additional moral considerations are needed."

Ya think? Replace "these things" with "the army that replicates killer frog cells exponentially", and replace "at some point" with "just this second". I think you have a clearer understanding of the situation.

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.