Watch: Real Flubber? Scientists invent moving, shape changing magnetic slime

A moving magnetic slime has been created by scientists. It is capable of self-healing, encircling smaller objects and “very large deformation” to be able to squeeze itself and travel through narrow spaces.   

Controlled by magnets, slime is a good electrical conductor. It is a dark-coloured magnetic blob and can also be used to interconnect electrodes, said its creators.   

It may be helpful in aiding human digestion. 

The slime has also been compared to a similar substance created in the 1997 film ‘Flubber’ on social media.   

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It has also been described as a “magnetic turd” and “amazing and a tiny bit terrifying”.   

The slime has been co-created by Prof Li Zhang of Chinese University, Hong Kong. Zhang said the substance was real scientific research and not an April fool’s joke as it was released on April 1.   

The blob contains magnetic particles, which can be manipulated to rotate, travel, form O and C shapes when external magnets are also applied to it.

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It has also been described as a “magnetic slime robot”.   

The study has been published in the peer-reviewed journal ‘Advanced Functional Materials ‘.   

The slime lacked autonomy for the time being, Zhang said.   

“The ultimate goal is to deploy it like a robot. We still consider it as fundamental research – trying to understand its material properties,” Zhang added.   

It also has “visco-elastic properties”, meaning that “sometimes it behaves like a solid, sometimes it behaves like a liquid,” Zhang said.    

It seems to have been made of a mixture of a polymer called polyvinyl alcohol, borax and particles of neodymium magnet.    

(With inputs from agencies)