University of Bristol

In the world of dogs and cats, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that canines seem more optimistic and felines less so. But a dog's optimism can apparently be dampened by their human's emotional state, according to new research.

Snails are great at climbing vertical surfaces, even though they have just a single wet suction-cup foot. A new robot climbs walls by mimicking that simple yet effective mechanism, although thankfully it leaves a trail of water instead of mucus.

Researchers have developed a prototype robot that is able to perform a breast examination and sense lumps that may indicate cancer. While still in the early stages, they say their robot could improve the likelihood of catching breast cancer early.

If a robot is trying to traverse rugged, irregular terrain, it's limited by having just one body shape. The Tetraflex robot was designed with this fact in mind, as it can change shape to adopt different modes of locomotion.

When designing fish-like underwater robots, you want a means of propulsion which is both energy-efficient and reasonably speedy. A new tail-flapping system may fit the bill, paving the way for wider usage of such bots.

If you're designing robots for the exploration of oceans on other planets, you want something that's tough, versatile and easy to store in a spacecraft. It turns out that soft-bodied robots inspired by a marine organism may be the perfect choice.

Batteries that make use of sodium as an electrode material are showing exciting promise by some key measures when it comes to next-generation energy storage solutions, and new research has now edged them closer to mainstream use.

Two years ago, scientists at the University of Bristol discovered that some moths evade bats via sound-absorbing scales on their body. New research now suggests that wallpaper inspired by those scales could be used to block out unwanted noises.

No matter how good our human designs may be, there’s no shame in copying Mother Nature’s homework. A new nature-inspired flying robot can flap its wings even more efficiently than an insect, using a unique electrostatic “zipping” mechanism.

Soft-bodied robots move via pneumatic "muscles" that are selectively inflated or deflated. And while the muscles themselves may be soft and squishy, they're usually hooked up to hard, unwieldy pumps. A new pump, however, is both small and flexible.

By observing a barn owl in flight as it contended with strong winds, scientists have discovered how its wings can act as a suspension system to absorb the forces in mid-air, lessons they hope to apply to the development of small-scale aircraft.

Our story on NDB's self-charging nuclear diamond batteries generated a lot of heated discussion, so we reached out to the University of Bristol, where the technology was invented, to discover exactly what these diamond betabatteries can and can't do.