A tiny figure made from this new substance can jailbreak like the Terminator by shifting phases.
, after all. But researchers recently developed a novel substance capable of recreating a variation on that ability. With more experimentation and fine-tuning, this new “magnetoactive solid-liquid phase transitional machine” could provide a host of tools for everything from construction repair to medical procedures.
“There is some context to the video. It [looks] like magic,” Carmel Majidi, a senior author and mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon, explains to PopSci with a laugh. According Majidi, everything leading up to the model’s reformation is as it appears—the shapeliquify before being drawn through the mesh barrier via alternating electromagnetic currents. From there, however, someone pauses the camera to recast the mold into its original shape.
But even without the little cinema history gag, Majidi explains that he and his colleagues’ new material could have major benefits within a host of situations. The team, made up of experts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Carnegie Mellon University have created a “phase-shifting” material by embedding magnetic particles within gallium, a metal featuring an extremely low melting point of just 29.8C, or roughly 85F.
Majidi’s and colleagues’ latest variation, however, stands apart from that amorphous blob of similar substances. “What this endows those systems with is their ability to now change stiffness and change shape, so they can now have even greater mobility within that context.”Majidi cautions, however, that any deployment in doctors’ offices is still far down the road.
Further testing needs undertaking to determine the substance’s biocompatibility in humans, but Majidi argues that it’s not hard to imagine patients one day entering an MRI-like machine that can guide ingested versions of the material for medical procedures. For now, however, it looks like modern technology is at least one step closer to catching up withAndrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V.
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