Liquid Shape-Shifting Drop Moves On Its Own Accord (Video)

First Posted: Mar 11, 2015 07:54 PM EDT
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Scientists have made a liquid metal drop that can actually propel itself through liquid and change shape to fit through any narrow passage.

"The soft machine looks rather intelligent and [can] deform itself according to the space it voyages in, just like [the] Terminator does from the science-fiction film," said Jing Liu from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, via New Scientist. "These unusual behaviours perfectly resemble the living organisms in nature," he says, adding that they raise questions about the definition of life.

It certainly sounds a bit like T - 1000 robot assassin from the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But this is not something that's going to be used for a Sci-Fi film. In the future, scientists are hoping that it could be used to develop new methods for delivering drugs through blood vessels.

Researchers at Tsinghua University in China mixed gallium, indium and tin together and then attached a tiny bit of aluminum to the drop. When they dropped it into a container of sodium hydroxide, otherwise known as salt water, the aluminum formed a chemical reaction with the solution that produced tiny bubbles that also propelled the drop.

A natural imbalance of electric charges enhanced the propulsion that occurred between both the front and back of the drop, as it continued to move forward, assuming the aluminum bit was on the back end.

From there, they placed the drop into a container with channels as it followed a path that the scientists had designed for the study. The path narrowed, and the drop adjusted its shape to squeeze on through.

The study authors hope that with future research, this invention could be used to help convert chemical energy to mechanical energy that might be used in a liquid robot.

For complete information on this story, visit here.

Want to learn more about this shape-shifting metal motor? Check out this video, courtesy of YouTube.

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