Crazy Nanotech Skin Can Make Bouncing Balloons of Liquid Metal

Liquid metal technology . That ’s Terminator 2 material , right-hand ? Well you well start run now , John Connor , because it ’s here . A new , flexible , conductive nano - coatinglets liquid alloy keep its formby transform under high pressure , and then reverberate right back .

Granted , it ’s not like anyone will be using this technical school to constitute galinstan — an alloy of gallium , indium , and tin that ’s liquid at room temperature — into any sorting of rigid , functional cock ( or robots ) , but the coating develop by researchers at RMIT University in Australia will get drop of the fluent metallic element retain their embodiment like robust water balloons . Robust water balloon full of metal . Not only do the “ marble ” form of leap , but they can be sliced , merged , and even suspended on water system — all while retain their semi - conductive property .

The applications for this sort of tech — beyond just doing clobber that just looks cool — could be anything from extendible antennae to tops flexible telegram . Use cases where you need alloy , but not its characteristic rigidity . Because this form of coating is in its early phase though , there ’s no notification whether or not it ’ll be potential to produce little galinstan pellets like this at anything resembling a reasonable cost , or that the coated alloy will last long enough to be worth using — for Terminators or otherwise . [ PhysOrg ]