New material handles stress and keeps in shape

, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the U.S. Department of Energy have united to help develop Liquidmetal, a new plastic-like building material that cools quickly and has more than twice the strength of titanium.

It has long been thought that plastic and steel were the best materials to use in building large products. These new "shapeless alloys" combine the strength of steel with the moulding capability of plastic.

Dr. Bill Johnson of Caltech, Pasadena, California, has studied metals with liquid atomic structures for over 30 years. He eventually teamed up with Dr. Atakan Peker of Liquidmetal Technologies, Lake Forest, California. Peker further helped Johnson develop the idea of creating thick liquid metals that form glass without the need for rapid cooling.

Johnson began working in the field in the early 1980s with colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA and Liquidmetal Technologies co-operated on research using the microgravity conditions available flying on the space shuttle. Extensive experiments on liquid metals were conducted onboard the International Microgravity Laboratory flight in 1994 and again in 1997 on the Microgravity Science Laboratory mission. The work was sponsored by NASA, Caltech and the U.S. Department of Energy to create new materials for aerospace.