[music] This little bit of rubber that looks almost like a new toy is a robot. It’s so small, just a little bit over a tenth of an inch, that it could easily move around inside your body. And it’s soft, no sharp edges. What’s really impressive, though, is not how small it is, but all the different ways it can move. It crawls. It walks. It rolls. It jumps. It swims. It even climbs out of the pool. The scientists in Germany who worked on the robot were inspired by the movements of living creatures, like caterpillars and jellyfish. The robots are filled with magnetic particles that allow the scientists to bend or manipulate them at will. “When we apply a magnetic field, the elastic sheath changes its shape to anything that we want.” Human tests are yet to come. But the robots are intended for medical use. And to do that, they need to do more than just move. The robot can grab an object. Or a drug could be added to a built-in pocket, then a shape change would trigger release. The only thing it doesn’t have yet is a name. “When I was presenting this first finding, a few of the audience came to me and said, ‘This looks like, real like a Gumby.’” What would you call a little wormy, Gumby-like thing that’s squirming around your body, in a good way? Gumbo? Gambino? Or my favorite, My Little Worm Aide. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?