The “wiggle-ometer” might not sound like the most hi-tech piece of kit but it could be the saviour of modern medicine.

Developed by academics from the University of Bristol, led by Dr Massimo Antognozzi, the imaging machine detects minute movements in bacteria, determining whether they’ve been affected by particular antibiotics.

The wiggle-ometer is one of more than 70 projects from around the world in the running for the £8 million Longitude Prize, launched by the government in 2014, in a bid to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Overuse and misuse of antibiotics in both animals and humans is driving the growth of superbugs and one problem is that GPs do not have access to rapid diagnostic tests to determine which infections can be treated with which antibiotics.

If they want to prescribe antibiotics with accuracy they have to send samples to a lab, which takes at least 24 hours.

Nesta, the innovation charity managing the prize, will award the money to the team that comes up with an affordable, accurate, easy-to-use bacterial test.