Researchers have found a way to create an electronic skin that can completely heal itself, a huge finding with broad implications for the medical community as well as robotics. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, describes a thin film that is equipped with sensors and can determine pressure, temperature, humidity, and other things we can detect with our real skin.

It is made up of three compounds mixed together to form a matrix of nanoparticles that, when it is cut in two, adding those compounds can allow the e-skin to heal itself by recreating the bonds that holds together the “skin.”
The e-skin can also be soaked in a special solution that turns it into a liquid, allowing it to be recycled into a new skin.

Scientists believe that this technology could be used for robots, or to create prosthetics. It could also be used in the creation of smart textiles. E-skins are being developed in a laboratories around the world, allowing people to turn a shirt into a video game controller in Japan, for example. The fact that this new e-skin is recyclable makes it unique among other e-skins in development.