New ‘liquid smart metal’ can go hard or floppy
Top boffins in Germany and China say they have developed a remarkable new type of metal material which can switch from being strong and hard to soft and squashy at the touch of a button.
“For the first time we have succeeded in producing a material which, while in service, can switch back and forth between a state of strong and brittle behavior and one of soft and malleable,” says the prof. “We are still at the fundamental research stage but our discovery may bring significant progress in the development of so-called smart materials.”
