Weird Science

[kyonides]

Not from the producers of "The Real Life Version of Skynet" made a ChatBot...

Real ‘Terminator 2’ robot can switch from solid to liquid — and back

Is “Judgment Day” here?

Hong Kong scientists bridged the gap between sci-fi and real life after creating a robot that can transform from solid to liquid like a real-life T-1000 robot from “Terminator 2.” A study detailing the cybernetic shapeshifter was published last month in the journal Matter.

“Giving robots the ability to switch between liquid and solid states endows them with more functionality,” said Chengfeng Pan, an engineer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who spearheaded the groundbreaking study, said in a statement.

 Could anyone tell the  Chinese  lunatics that they should immediately stop watching the Terminator movies?

The robot, dubbed “magnetoactive phase transitional matter (MPTM),” was reportedly created to combine the structural integrity and strength of traditional robots with the flexibility of their soft counterpart, Smithsonian magazine reported.
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MPTM was inspired by the sea cucumber, a marine invertebrate that can “can very rapidly and reversibly change their stiffness,” according to senior author and mechanical engineer Carmel Majidi of Carnegie Mellon University.
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Researchers created the robot out of a metal called gallium — which has a low melting point of about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. They then infused it with magnetic particles, which allow scientists to control how they melt or move.

“The magnetic particles here have two roles,” explained Majidi. “One is that they make the material responsive to an alternating magnetic field, so you can, through induction, heat up the material and cause the phase change.”

He added, “But the magnetic particles also give the robots mobility and the ability to move in response to the magnetic field.”

After melting like mercury, the material then immediately reverts back to its original solid form via ambient cooling.

An accompanying video shows the MPTM liquefying to escape a cage before glomming back together, again much like the iconic jailbreak scene from “Terminator 2.” Other feats included jumping up to 20 times its body length, scaling walls, and even soldering a circuit board, Smithsonian mag reported.

Hey Schwarzenegger! We got  news for you! You have finally become Expendable!
 How long would it take to see Microsoft asking Hong Kong to create their first Terminator agent in exchange for a deranged AI that we all know very well by now?
 Don't feel depressed, guys! They can't become time travelers...  but I can't guarantee those agents won't start chasing down anybody named Connor or O'Connor and the like in the not so near future.
I really wanna be totally wrong about that last assumption, my dear readers.