University of Edinburgh

If someone asked you to move like a robot and you responded with the fluid art of ballet, your audience would be baffled, yet technically, you would be right. Robots are famous for their characteristic rigid movement, which is useful in some applications but can hinder adaptability. Now, researchers have developed a robotic wing that moves like no other.

Here's a rather novel way to keep trash out of landfills: engineering biologists have developed a way to turn common plastic bottles into the popular painkiller paracetamol. All it takes is a bit of bacteria and time to ferment the treated waste.

While there are many uses for soft-bodied robots, the things are still only built in small batches. Scientists are out to change that, with a mass-production-capable soft bot that is 3D-printed in a single piece which walks off of the print bed.

Water can hold a huge amount of thermal energy, and a new system to tap into this is being trialed in Scotland. A startup called SeaWarm uses heat stored in bodies of water for buildings, pulling four times more heat out than electricity used.

It’s taken more than three decades, but scientists have cracked the code and created a material that’s near-impossible to break and rivals diamond as the hardest substance on the planet. The applications for this long-sought-after substance are vast.

Taking 3D images underwater is tricky due to inconsistent lighting conditions and particles in the water that cause distortion. Researchers have created a novel prototype system that uses quantum technology and LiDAR to overcome these difficulties.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have taken plastic recycling technology into new territory, demonstrating how an engineered form of E. coli bacteria can be used to turn plastic bottles in vanillin, the primary compound of vanilla flavoring.

When it comes to developing robots that can move efficiently through water, scientists regularly turn to creature’s like jellyfish for inspiration, and a UK research team has just produced one that can swim with the best of them.

If your roses are getting a bit untidy, fear not, because an international team of researchers has developed a prototype robot gardener to do the job. Called Trimbot, it can not only do a spot of mowing but also prune roses and trim bushes.

​Although many of us may balk at the thought of drinking arsenic, the toxic chemical does occur naturally in the drinking water of some regions – and its levels definitely need to be monitored. An inexpensive new device allows people in developing countries to do so, and it works with a smartphone.

​Although we've seen a number of experimental wave-power systems in recent years, a new one is claimed to be less expensive and to incorporate fewer moving parts, while still remaining durable in rough seas. It's known as a Dielectric Elastomer Generator, or DEG for short.

Sticky hands resulting from melted ice cream could become a thing of the past thanks to scientists in Scotland who have discovered a naturally-occurring protein that can be added to ice cream to make it melt more slowly.