Tiny magnetic robots can help remove some of the smallest plastic particles from polluted water.
Most plastics eventually end up as tiny fragments that then hide in our environment, food and drinking water. There is no consensus on the health implications of ingesting plastic yet, but early research suggests that plastic particles can enter organs within the body and that this process gets easier as the particles get smaller.
However, efficiently detecting and removing the tiniest of plastics, or nanoplastics, from water is still…