14 DAY TRIAL // First off, fair warning: this video will completely blow your mind. I mean, it's not every day that one gets to see scientists use liquid metals and 3D printing technologies and techniques to roll out free-standing structures.
Under any other circumstances, the metal would just fall to the ground and turn into a not-so-good-looking puddle. Science News explains that the structures shown in the video above can stand on their own due to the fact that the liquid metals used to create them react to the oxygen in the room.
The result is the formation of a protective layer that keeps the structures from falling apart.
“It's difficult to create structures out of liquids, because liquids want to bead up. But we've found that a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium reacts to the oxygen in the air at room temperature to form a ‘skin’ that allows the liquid metal structures to retain their shapes,” Dr. Michael Dickey details.