A German materials scientist Jörg Weißmüller and Chinese physicist Hai-Jun Jin have created a metallic material that can go hard or soft at the flick of a switch. The material is porous and responds to electrical signals, making it go hard and brittle to soft and malleable.

Engineers have long craved for a material that is as strong as steel, having good conducting properties, but also being mold-able like putty. They may soon get such a material, thanks to research done at Yale University. Moreover, the material is cheap to produce.