Scientists on Wednesday published a study showing that self-healing metal like that of the murderous T-1000 in Terminator 2 is a real phenomenon. Sort of. The research published in Naturedescribed how bits of pure platinum and copper spontaneously healed cracks created by metal fatigue in nanoscale experiments. The researchers also said they hoped the discovery of “cold welding” could one day be used to make self-healing machines and structures. “Unlike the self-healing robots in the ‘Terminator’ movie, this process is not visible at the human scale,” said Brad Boyce, a Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist who helped to lead the study. “It occurs at the nanoscale, and we have yet to be able to control the process.”
