Watch shape-shifting metal gallium in action | Science News

With the help of variable and permanent magnets, researchers turned chunks of gallium into shape-shifting devices. In the first clip, a toy figure escapes its jail cell by liquefying, gliding through the bars and resolidifying using a mold placed just outside the bars. In the second clip, one device removes a ball from a model human stomach by wrapping itself around the foreign object and exiting the organ.
Video: Q. Wang et al/Matter 2023 (CC BY-SA)

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It only reformed into the lego-man shape because there was a lego-man mold outside the cell, otherwise it would just be a solid puddle after cooling, so no, it's not Skynet as everybody keeps saying. 🙄 But why is the video so herky-jerky once it's reformed? I'm guessing it's because they couldn't get it to get out of the mold by itself and had to manually take it out. I wonder if that's the reason the clock-hand on the axes goes BACKWARDS. 🤨