• Question: In the film Transformers age of extinction they find a new metal called transformium and create transformers. Is this ever a reality that we will be able to create transformers in the future?

    Asked by Samterbi to Angeline, Catherine, Luke, Philip, Shona on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Philip Moriarty

      Philip Moriarty answered on 16 Mar 2015:


      Oh, that’s a superb question! In terms of shape-shifting Transformers, then we’re nowhere near (as you might have guessed) but there are quite a few researchers working on the idea of shape-shifting and programmable materials. It’s a fascinating area of research — can we make a material which changes not only its shape, but its properties, *reversibly*? That is, can we make a material which we can switch back and forth between two different states?

      This is the closest that researchers have got so far, but there’s lots of scope to go further: http://mashable.com/2014/07/14/shape-shifting-robot/

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