Could The Liquid Metal Terminator Exist In Real Life?

With ‘Terminator Genisys’ set to once again frighten us all about the impending robot apocalypse, we thought we’d ask an expert just how likely it is that the awesome liquid metal robot (the T-1000) could actually feature in reality.

“I’ve literally hammered a nail through a computer and the computer doesn’t like it very much,” says Dr. Peter Bentley, head of the Digital Biology unit at University College London.

“[But] all living things are actually amazing in terms of their ability to self-repair. The cool thing about the ‘Terminator Genisys’ robot is it’s fluid, it can change its shape, it can repair itself. These are all exactly the properties we would like.”

And in fact, scientists are at least on the right path to achieving it. Bentley and his team work with ferrofluid, which contains nano-sized particles that are magnetic and can be manipulated (see him do it in the video above).

“This is as close as we’ve got to the ‘Terminator Genisys’ robot,” he says.

‘Terminator Genisys’ is released in the UK on 2 July.