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It could be an April 1st joke, but it’s not.
A group of scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong developed a magnetic viscous substance which may, in the future, be used for medical applications, such as removal of objects external to the body from the digestive system. In addition, the magnetic particles that make up the substance give it the characteristic of being a good electrical conductor.
A investigation has been published on March 25 in the scientific journal Advanced Functional Materials. Li Zhang, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and co-author of the research, explained to The Guardian that “the ultimate goal is to use it as a robot“, but that, for the time being, it was necessary to improve the substance’s capacity for autonomy.
Still, we consider it fundamental research, the attempt to understand the properties of its components”, clarified the teacherwho said that the substance has “elastic properties,” meaning that it “sometimes behaves like a solid, and other times it behaves like a liquid.”
although still there are no concrete plans for medical testing with the new substance, the team of scientists believes that it can be used, for example, to protect the human organism if a battery or battery is swallowed, since the viscous substance can be used to prevent “toxic electrolytes from leaking” into the body, using the viscous robot as a kind of capsule.
