At less than 5mm in length, the polymers are hard to remove manually. But there may be a more efficient method of eliminating the plastic scourge: attacking them with bacteria-sized robots. Scientists at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague recently developed self-propelled microrobots that can swim onto microplastics and break them down. The tiny bots — about the size of a red blood cell — use solar power to move through water and dismantle microplastics that they find. [Read: Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters] In a proof-of-concept study, the microbots successfully swam down a maze of channels to efficiently degrade a range of synthetic microplastics: The team still needs to further investigate the potential capabilities and environmental impacts of the bots. But they believe that their research could lay the foundations for a new way of degrading microplastics. Greetings Humanoids! Did you know we have a newsletter all about AI? You can subscribe to it right here.
