Advances in recent time in Von-neumann self replication idea
For those who don't know, I am the world's only producer of a von Neumann 29-state self-replicating cellular automaton.
Indeed, respecting vNCA, I am the world's expert.  Ask Sayama (U Binghamton), Reggia(U of Maryland), or Adamatzky (U of South of England).
While DW may be a moderator, he does not know anything about von Neumann's cellular automata, I dare say he has not designed such self-replicators, and he certainly had not designed a machine zygote.  For my design of a machine zygote, see here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235432119_Computational_Ontogeny
One more thing, it is 29 states, not 28.