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Progress is not to be sniffed at
n our occasional series profiling the exciting technological developments of our greatest scientific institutions, we bring news from Warwick and Leicester universities, where a joint project has successfully increased the sensitivity of robot noses.
Despite having very few sensors, the nose in their experiments can now successfully tell apart the smell of milk and bananas, which should be useful in cutting down the perilous amount of milk-banana confusion in modern Britain.
And what, you ask, made all the difference?
A mixture of polymers coating the sensors. That’s right. The team created artificial snot. Now it just needs to create a little aluminium hankie for when the robot needs to blow its nose.
As Google Maps is directing Americans asking directions to London from anywhere in North America to Long Wharf, Boston and then to Swim across the Atlantic Ocean for 3,462 minutes, would it not be charitable to install an electronic sign there advising them of delays on the M25, thus saving them a wasted journey?
Posted by :Bob Foale, Royal Bank of Scotland | May 31, 2007 4:47 PM