Delivering chemotherapy drugs directly to cancers could help reduce side effects, and soon that job could be done by tiny 3D-printed robotic animals. These microrobots are steered by magnets, and only release their drug payload when they encounter the acidic environment around a tumor.

A team from The Australian National University (ANU) has developed a jelly-like material that has many of the properties of living tissue. A form of a hydrogel, the jelly is not only self-healing but is very strong and can change its shape - allowing it to mimic skin, ligaments, and bone.