It’s brown, it’s slimy, and it can move through your body. “But, that can only be possible in movies,” – is this what you’re thinking? Well, now it's a reality because scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong recently created such a magnetic slime robot that can retrieve inadvertently ingested objects from your body, besides doing other things.
Known as the ‘Reconfigurable Magnetic Slime Robot', this new innovation, a blob of sorts, has created a buzz among netizens after reports about it started appearing online.
A study about this new innovation was initially published on March 2 in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Functional Materials titled Reconfigurable Magnetic Slime Robot: Deformation, Adaptability, and Multifunction. According to the study, these “magnetic, miniature soft-bodied robots allow non-invasive access to restricted spaces and provide ideal solutions for minimally invasive surgery, micromanipulation, and targeted drug delivery.”
The co-authors of this research have been officially listed as Mengmeng Sun, Chenyao Tian, Liyang Mao, Xianghe Meng, Xingjian Shen, Bo Hao, Xin Wang, Hui Xie and professor Li Zhang.
New Scientist, a London-based science and technology magazine, also shared a video on Twitter. Their video showing how the magnetic slime works initially prompted people to think that the innovation was a joke. They first shared the video on April 1. Later, however, it became clear that scientist did invent it.
{{/usCountry}}New Scientist, a London-based science and technology magazine, also shared a video on Twitter. Their video showing how the magnetic slime works initially prompted people to think that the innovation was a joke. They first shared the video on April 1. Later, however, it became clear that scientist did invent it.
{{/usCountry}}“A robot made of magnetic slime could be deployed inside the body to perform tasks such as retrieving objects swallowed by accident,” they tweeted along with the video. They also shared an article link to provide more information about the invention.
Watch the Twitter video of the magnetic slime robot right here:
The post left people intrigued and they shared various comments. A few also posted hilarious replies while reacting. Sony also shared a reply from their official Twitter handle with a reference to the film Venom.
Here are some more reactions:
Li Zhang, while speaking to the Guardian, said “The ultimate goal is to deploy it like a robot,” and added that for the time being the slime lacks autonomy. “We still consider it as fundamental research – trying to understand its material properties,” he shared.