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Meet the Chinese fish robots that can ‘eat’ microplastics – and maybe help clean up oceans
- Small bots developed by researchers at Sichuan University absorbed plastic pollutants in tests in shallow water
- The next step is to see if they can do it at greater depths and analyse the contaminants in real time
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Why you can trust SCMP
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It’s small, soft, eats microplastics and, with time, might be able to analyse marine pollution in real time.
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Scientists in southwest China say they have developed a self-propelled robot fish that can wiggle its body, flap its “fins” and swim around to suck microplastics out of the water.
In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nano Letters on June 22, researchers from Sichuan University in southwest China said the robot could also “self-heal” and absorb microplastics even when damaged.
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For now, the soft robot only collects microplastics in the shallows.
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