--- title: How Robots Are Helping Us Find Answers to Climate Change description: The underwater robot army hunting climate change answers, VR concussion diagnosis and more. canonical: https://time.com/4268929/robots-climate-change-answers/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-23T16:01:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:13.474Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Robots Are Helping Us Find Answers to Climate Change og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4268929/robots-climate-change-answers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Robots Are Helping Us Find Answers to Climate Change twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Robots Are Helping Us Find Answers to Climate Change by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 23, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 23, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**3,900 robotic ocean probes are searching for answers about climate change.**](http://www.nature.com/news/massive-network-of-robotic-ocean-probes-gets-smart-upgrade-1.19621) By Jeff Tollefson in Nature **2\.** [**This virtual reality device could save lives by diagnosing concussions in under a minute.**](http://www.fastcompany.com/3058130/virtual-reality-device-may-help-diagnose-concussion-victims) By Daniel Terdiman in Fast Company **3\.** [**Could a vaccine cure heroin addiction?**](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/19/can-a-vaccine-cure-heroin-addiction.html) By Alexandra Ossola in the Daily Beast **4\.** [**To empower women, give them better access to water.**](https://theconversation.com/to-empower-women-give-them-better-access-to-water-56244) By Bethany Caruso in the Conversation **5\.** [**Bread mold might be the key to sustainable rechargeable batteries.**](http://www.dundee.ac.uk/news/2016/could-bread-mould-build-a-better-rechargeable-battery.php) By Roddy Isles at the University of Dundee  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4268929/robots-climate-change-answers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4268929/robots-climate-change-answers/"},"headline":"How Robots Are Helping Us Find Answers to Climate Change","datePublished":"2016-03-23T16:01:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:13.474Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4268929/robots-climate-change-answers/","keywords":["Innovation","climate change","Water","Heroin","battery","Concussion"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4268929/robots-climate-change-answers/","name":"How Robots Are Helping Us Find Answers to Climate Change"}}]}] ```