In the blockbuster Terminator movie franchise, an evil robot morphs into different human forms and objects and oozes through narrow openings, thanks to its "liquid-metal" composition. Although current robots don't have these capabilities, the technology is getting closer with the development of new liquid metals that can be manipulated in 3-D space with magnets. Reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, the materials could someday find applications in soft robotics.

Metals that are liquids at room temperature, such as gallium and certain alloys, have unique properties including high conductivity, low melting point and high deformability. These properties make them attractive for use in soft robots and flexible electronics. By adding magnetic particles, such as nickel or iron, researchers can produce liquid metals that they can manipulate with magnets. However, because of their high surface tension, most magnetic liquid metals can only move horizontally, and they must be immersed completely in liquid to avoid forming a paste. Liang Hu, Jing Liu and colleagues wanted to make a magnetic liquid metal that they could move and stretch both horizontally and vertically, without needing to put the material completely in a liquid.

To do so, the researchers first worked with the material submersed in liquid. They added iron particles to a droplet of a gallium, indium and tin alloy immersed in hydrochloric acid. A gallium oxide layer formed on the droplet surface, which lowered the surface tension of the liquid metal. When the team applied two magnets in opposite directions, they could stretch the droplet to almost four times its resting length. They could also manipulate the liquid metal to connect two immersed, horizontal electrodes and, by virtue of its conductive properties, light up an LED bulb. The liquid metal could even stretch vertically and then move horizontally to connect two electrodes-the upper one exposed to air, and the lower one in the hydrochloric acid. This demonstrated that the material didn't have to be fully immersed in liquid. In this way, the magnetic liquid metal was reminiscent of an upright walking amphibian, the researchers say.

According to new research carried out by Testbiotech, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has already given non-regulated status to more than 20 plants genetically engineered with so-called genome editing techniques. None of the applications registered at the USDA were referred for further more detailed assessment.

The Testbiotech report published today shows that there are however significant differences in methods of production, traits and risks of the non-regulated plants in comparison to those derived from conventional breeding.

These differences are not caused by the newly introduced gene sequences but by e.g. the patterns of genetic changes. 'Gene-scissors' such as CRISPR/Cas can delete whole families of gene variants all at once - this is either impossible or barely possible with current conventional breeding methods. A further specific difference: in a first step, older methods such as the 'gene gun' (biolistic method) or gene transfer via agrobacterium tumefaciens are commonly used. However, the USDA completely ignores these differences to conventional breeding.

Can two versions of reality exist at the same time? Physicists say they can - at the quantum level, that is.

Researchers recently conducted experiments to answer a decades-old theoretical physics question about dueling realities. This tricky thought experiment proposed that two individuals observing the same photon could arrive at different conclusions about that photon's state - and yet both of their observations would be correct.

For the first time, scientists have replicated conditions described in the thought experiment. Their results, published Feb. 13 in the preprint journal arXiv, confirmed that even when observers described different states in the same photon, the two conflicting realities could both be true. [The Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]

"You can verify both of them," study co-author Martin Ringbauer, a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbrück in Austria, told Live Science.

Experiments show electric field can modify silicate glass, causing parts to melt while remaining solid elsewhere; discovery suggests heat in glass could be produced on a very fine scale, could point to performance challenges for devices that use glass

Characterizing and predicting how electrically-heated silicate glass behaves is important because it is used in a variety of devices that drive technical innovations. Silicate glass is used in display screens. Glass fibers power the internet. Nanoscale glass devices are being deployed to provide breakthrough medical treatments such as targeted drug-delivery and re-growing tissue.

The discovery that under certain conditions electrically-heated silicate glass defies a long-accepted law of physics known as Joule's first law should be of interest to a broad spectrum of scientists, engineers, even the general public, according to Himanshu Jain, Diamond Distinguished Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh University.

Some bacteria use tails, or flagella, to swim through liquids-including those in our bodies. However, new research published today in PLOS Biology reveals a surprisingly drastic measure taken by some bacteria when facing starvation: they eject their flagella, leaving themselves paralyzed, but conserving energy so they can stay alive.

The research team, led by Imperial College London in collaboration with researchers from the Francis Crick Institute, the University of Leiden, and Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, say this is the first time such curious behaviour has been observed in bacteria.

The serendipitous discovery was made when the team were collecting detailed images of the 'motors' that drive flagella in a group of bacteria that includes various harmful species, including Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera.

New USGS data show how cities have higher or lower risks of blackouts during a powerful sun storm depending on their regional geology

Our sun is a restless star. When it's particularly active, it can eject effervescent packages of magnetic energy and charged particles known as solar flares. If it releases a minor flare aimed at Earth, the solar material can produce harmless but spectacular displays of auroras when it slams into our atmosphere.

However, more powerful solar outbursts can give birth to geomagnetic storms that wreak havoc in Earth's magnetic bubble, potentially delivering serious damage to the planet's electrical infrastructure. (See pictures of solar storms being made in the lab.)

And, as it turns out, your city's ability to weather a powerful geomagnetic storm may depend on the types of rocks below your feet.

Recent research by the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed how different flavors of rocks interact with geomagnetic storms in the northeastern U.S. The work shows that the potential damage to electrical networks can either be significantly amplified or dampened based on the regional rock types. People living in the New England Highlands, for example, have a higher risk of experiencing major damage during a geomagnetic storm, the study shows, while those in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain have a far lower risk.

Scientists have known for a while that geology plays a key role in solar storm damage. But Love's study, published in December in the journal Space Weather, goes a step further by precisely quantifying how geological differences control the damage potential in specific locations in the U.S. northeast. And although this study only focused on one part of one country, it has global implications.

In the next two years, the Navy wants to deploy a laser aboard a guided-missile destroyer as the service learns to integrate directed energy weapon systems on warships, the Navy's director of surface warfare said on Wednesday.

"We are going to burn the boats if you will and move forward with this technology," Rear Adm. Ron Boxall said during the Booz, Allen, Hamilton and CSBA Directed Energy Summit 2019.

The service is targeting 2021 to install a High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance weapon system aboard a West Coast Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA destroyer, Boxall said.

A shock discovery is in from Bennu. The NASA spacecraft analysing the asteroid has observed it shooting out plumes of dust that surround it in a dusty haze - a phenomenon we've never seen in an asteroid before.

In the months that OSIRIS-REx has been studying Bennu, the spacecraft has observed this ejecta no fewer than 11 times. Since we've never seen such a thing, it suggests our understanding of asteroids may be pretty poor.

"The discovery of plumes is one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career," said principal investigator Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx has been making observations of Bennu since December last year, when it parked itself in orbit around the asteroid. Its aim is to study the rock to learn about the early Solar System, since it's thought Bennu formed at that time.

And, ambitiously, the craft is going to be taking a sample from the asteroid with a robotic arm, with intention to bring it back to Earth.

In biology, the most amazing designs are often found in small things. In fact, it often seems that the closer you need to look, the greater the wonder. It's as if someone set it there to hide, waiting for us. Here are some little guys worth knowing about, from among the insects and the crustaceans.

Froghoppers

"Froghopper insects can perform explosive jumps with some of the highest accelerations known among animals," say three scientists in PNAS. The little hemipterans can withstand 400 g's as they accelerate at 4,000 meters/second squared. They belong in a different suborder and family from the planthoppers that Evolution News wrote about in 2013, whose nymphs have gears on their legs to store elastic energy for their leaps.

Marcelo Gleiser sounds as though he thinks that the great mysteries of physics are about this universe, not space aliens, computer sim universes, cyborgs, and so forth (on that score, see 2011 Templeton winner Sir Martin Rees).

More on Gleiser:

"There is all this stuff that science has discovered, but there are so many questions we still have no clue about. Because nature is so much smarter than we are, we're always playing this game of catch-up," he says. "So I look at science as this kind of flirt with the unknown, and what motivates this spirit of discovery is awe and the joy of being part of this process." --Colin Dwyer, "Marcelo Gleiser Wins Templeton Prize For Quest To Confront 'Mystery Of Who We Are'" at NPR

Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne is not pleased:

Well, once again the canny John Templeton Foundation has awarded its million-pound Templeton Prize to someone who's not a religious figure but a scientist who enables religion and criticizes materialism and atheism. This time the Big Dosh went to Marcelo Gleiser, a professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. He's a theoretical physicist and also a prolific popular writer, having produced six books, some of which seem to emphasize the limits of science. And that's apparently what he got he Prize for: for adhering to Sir John Templeton's program that science and spirituality (aka religion) were both required to apprehend the "ultimate truths" about the Universe and answer the "Big Questions." --Jerry Coyne, March 19, 2019, "Templeton Prize awarded to physicist for blending science and woo" at Why Evolution Is True

But then, in Jerry's books, Templeton can do wrong just doing its job.