The latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports research led by bioengineer Shoji Takeuchi at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science. Specially-treated frog eggs were injected into a compact robot smell sensor to give it a sense of smell far more sensitive than electronic sniffers available today.

This offers potential applications in portable robotic systems, which will be able to monitor hard-to-detect polluting gases and distinguish between closely related chemicals. This technology is however expected to only be commercialised in 15 years.