Would you dive into a body of water populated by about 150 robots? That’s what could happen if you were to fall off a “gondola” in the Venice lagoon, where scientists from an initiative of seven European research institutes, are giving birth to the world’s largest population of autonomous robots .

Human civilization is responsible for large traces of non-organic materials in the oceans, namely crude oil and plastics. Two European research projects are now investigating how microbes can help to eliminate these substances in the sea .

Plastic products made of PVC, Polystyrene and other prominent plastics are flooding the market. They are a growing threat to the environment, as they are found in the sea or dumped in land fills .

When a coastal area is about to be hit by the waves of a tsunami, time is everything. The earlier we know where and when it is going to hit the coast, the more chances there are to evacuate the area.

Italian and German researchers of the European Research Project MC-WAP have replaced the diesel engines with a propulsion system based on molten carbonate fuel cells.

His aim was to develop a system that could capture the oil right at its source, before it disperses on the surface of the ocean.

Oil is less dense than water and therefore the oil escaping the sea bed travels up to the water surface. Dr. Fivos Andritsos and his colleagues from the Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy have now developed a reservoir which can be applied on top of the leakage.