From plastic made from peas and AI robots, science to watch in 2026

From plastic made from peas and AI robots, science to watch in 2026

Janine Machin - East of England technology correspondent

Wed, January 7, 2026 at 5:59 AM UTC

6 min read

Tim Ensor is wearing a blue suit and shirt. He is smiling at the camera and has a robot looking over each of his shoulders. The robots are humanoids - so have a head, body, arms and legs. Their heads are cubes with black screens for faces, displaying blinking white oval eyes. — Physical AI is a "hot topic" according to Tim Ensor at Cambridge Consultants [BBC]

When global pharmaceutical company Astrazenca paused plans to invest £200m in Cambridge last year, there were fears it could cause ripples through the science sector and affect wider investment and success.

But Jane Hutchins, the director of Cambridge Science Park - which was the first site of its kind in the UK - says it is expecting 2026 to be "a really good year", with businesses poised for breakthroughs.

Walking robots

In a dark room on Cambridge Science Park, two humanoid robots wearing trainers are walking around. They blink and wave to each other and, if you nudge one, it instinctively moves away from you.

Cambridge Consultants is using these robots to develop physical artificial intelligence (AI), which Tim Ensor, who leads the company's intelligent services, believes is "on the verge of its own ChatGPT moment".

"Humans know that an object is permanent, even if it's moved out of view. We know that some things are squishy and others are hard.

"Physical AI is getting robots to understand that – giving them a kind of common sense," said Ensor.

Robots are already widely used to perform repetitive tasks in the UK, from picking items in warehouses to assembling cars.

Physical AI would make them more versatile, by carrying out a range of jobs which may struggle to attract human applicants.

Cambridge Consultants was among the first tenants to rent space at the Cambridge Science Park in 1979. The company's successes include developing the first machine to make round teabags for Tetley, to the technology that kick-started Bluetooth.

Now there are more than 100 companies on the site, many attracting major investment.

Protein plastic

A woman in a white lab coat and purple gloves is leaning over a counter in a lab. She is using a metal bar to spread a thick, beige coloured solution over a piece of brown card. To the side is a glass beaker full of the solution with a syringe standing in it. The scientists has her long blonde hair tied back in a clip and is wearing goggles over her glasses. — Xampla creates plastic alternatives from plants - here a product made from peas is used to line cardboard for takeaway boxes [BBC]

Xampla makes plastic alternatives from plants. They create a solution from proteins found in peas, which is spread onto paper or card to prevent water and oil soaking through.

The company, who chose Cambridge Science Park as its base five years ago, has just landed a contract to line takeaway boxes for Just Eat.

"It means our boxes can be recycled and composted," said co-founder Dr Marc Rodriguez Garcia, "so we're contributing to potentially replacing billions of tonnes of single-use plastic".

Flexible smart glasses

Dr Paul Cain in in an engineering lab with racks of equipment on either side lit by blue light. He is wearing a pale pink shirt and holding a round lens up to the camera in each hand. One is transparent, the other is tinted dark grey. — Dr Paul Cain expects Flexenable to see its lenses used in smart glasses this year [BBC]

FlexEnable expects to break into the smart glasses market this year.

Smart glasses enhance the real world - they can provide subtitles on the lens to translate conversations, or give prompts to help people with dementia.

"Many smart glasses are still really bulky" said Dr Paul Cain. "We've developed a flexible plastic lens, as thin as a human hair, which is able to dim and focus the light.

"It would help make smart glasses look like ordinary glasses."

Cain said the technology could also eventually transform varifocal glasses with a single lens able to focus at any distance.

Breath tests

Owlstone co-founder Billy Boyle is wearing a navy blue t-shirt and holding up a diagnostic breath test for the camera. It is pale grey and the size and shape of a computer mouse. Boyle is smiling. He has dark hair and is standing alongside a window which gives a view into the company's diagnostic labs. — Owlstone Medical has secured up to $49m of funding from the US to further develop its breath tests, which diagnose diseases [BBC]

Owlstone Medical celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Based on Cambridge Science Park from the outset, it has become a world leader in developing breath tests to diagnose diseases.

"When we breathe out, our breath contains thousands of chemicals and some of them are markers for serious disease like cancer or gastrointestinal problems," said co-founder Billy Boyle.

"The tests can be done by a GP or even at home and they're non-invasive," Boyle added.

This year the company will start its next stage of UK lung cancer trials and has just signed a deal with the ARPA-H funding agency in the US, worth up to $49m, to further develop cancer diagnostics.

An aerial view of Cambridge Science Park. To the right, cars can be seen entering and leaving the site at a roundabout. There is a large green space in the middle of the picture and it is surrounded by very large industrial buildings and offices. The buildings in the foreground are very modern glass and metal structures but those further back are more dated designs. There are mature trees dotted throughout the site. — More than 7,000 people work on Cambridge Science Park but there are plans to increase capacity on the 150-acre site this year [BBC/Steve Hubbard]

Jane Hutchins, the director of Cambridge Science Park, said the recent investment in companies makes her believe 2026 will be "a good year".

"The beauty is that for the first time ever we now have national government, the mayoral authority and local government – three different political parties – all aligned in seeing the importance of growing this phenomenal city," said Hutchins.

A new masterplan for the park will be submitted this year, creating space for many more businesses on the 150-acre site.

The land was gifted to Trinity College, Cambridge, by Henry VIII, but since opening as a science park in 1970 it has grown "organically" and now requires a redesign to maximise space.

But Hutchins accepts that growth can cause conflict with local communities adding "we as a sector need to be better at telling people about the benefits and jobs it brings – not just for scientists.

"We need people in accounting, marketing, cleaners, landscape gardeners. And it'll be a place for the public to use," he said.

Plans to move sewage works to create more housing near to Cambridge Science Park have recently stalled.

Peter Freeman, the chair of Cambridge Growth Company (CGC), told Cambridge City Council in December that he thought science parks in the city might be able to help "pick up" that project.

Hutchins said she was waiting for more detail from the CGC.

Jane Hutchins is standing outside the Bradfield Centre at the heart of the science park. The bright orange external pillars of the building are to the right of the photo, with trees and greenery to the left. Jane is in the middle, smiling at the camera. She has dark blonde hair in a chin length bob, being blown slightly by the wind. She is wearing a black suit jacket and a chunky golden necklace with a sparkly pendant. — Jane Hutchins, the director of Cambridge Science Park, says the investment being secured by companies on the site makes her "very optimistic" about 2026 [BBC]

The UK government is banking on the science and technology sector to boost the economy.

It means small start-up companies must scale up and profit from their ideas, but a report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee identified scaling-up as a problem in the UK which forces talent and revenue to move overseas.

Dame Diane Coyle, an economist and Bennett professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge, agrees but said it was complex for any government to solve.

"You have to get a lot of things in place at the same time - it's like the Christmas cracker games where you need to roll six silver balls into holes.

"It's about how companies list on stock markets, how to get investors to fund companies in later stages and how to ensure we have the skilled workforce ready to move into new jobs as those companies expand.

"A lot of that co-ordination is easier at a local level than nationally," she said.

The government used November's budget to announce plans to back start-up companies, and while Coyle is "broadly optimistic" that UK science is on a positive trajectory she believes it requires a "mindset that enables quick decision-making and agility" in wider policymaking.

"Why is it so hard to get shops to stay in a place and get public transport to work? You can't have islands of amazing technology without amenities and public services built around them," she said.

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From plastic made from peas and AI robots, science to watch in 2026