The menacing, mercurial T-1000 bot in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, being made of liquid metal, shapeshifts. It's a pretty cool trick, one that Joseph DeSimone transferred from the stuff of science fiction to the real world.
DeSimone, a professor at University of North Carolina, used a 1970s printing technology called stereolithography to 3-D print objects out of liquid.
Usually, 3-D printing forms layers from the bottom up, printing in the same spot again and again. DeSimone’s company, Carbon3D, takes a top-down approach, printing in one continuous motion. This enables the device to create models up to 100 times faster than other 3-D printers. This opens many new applications for the technology, as shown in the company's prototypes at the Ford factory and a special-effects house. Some of the cool things DeSimone envisions include mechanics printing parts for vintage cars. Doctors creating bespoke emergency stents within minutes. Shape-shifting robots traveling back from the future to kill us all.
OK, maybe that last one won't actually happen...
