Researchers are working "to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together," reports New Scientist, in a fascinating article about real-life shape-shifting.

A Carnegie Mellon team of researchers "is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or ‘claytronic’, robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines."

What’s more, "[t]hese prototype robots use electromagnetic forces to manoeuvre themselves, communicate, and even share power."

Here’s a video depicting how these morphing robots would work:

It all sounds great, and it is, but the researchers concede the robots are still a long ways off.