The scientists used their fresh approach to build three robots that take advantage of this newfound flexibility. One is a cantilever (the "lifter" you see above) that can carry up to 50 times its weight. An accordion bot can expand and contract like a muscle, while a valve can squeeze to act as a pump.

There's no question that it'll take a long time to make this method viable for real robots. You'd need an external device to produce the field, for a start. However, the potential uses are already easy to see. The accordion and valve robots would be particularly useful for robots that have to mimic organic functions, not to mention prosthetics, implants and other health care equipment.