Terminator: Liquid Metal

Friday night's episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chroniclesdelivered the goods—a twisty episode, crammed with action, plot, and emotion, all leading up to a terrific set up for the third season (if there is one, and I really hope there is). The series has long-featured a T-1001 model terminator with unknown motives. For those of you not up on your terminator model numbers, the T-888 models features your classic Arnie-style metal endoskeltons wrapped in human flesh, while the T-1000's are made from 'liquid metal' of the sort featured in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. These terminators can form themselves into pretty much any shape they like, and real world researchers are already trying to develop materials with similar properties. These research efforts generally come under the heading of smart materials. One approach is create a single material which can be controlled—for example electrorheostatic materials are normally liquids, but become more viscous ...