from hard to soft then back again...

Yasutaro Mitsui with a robot from the early 1930s (from The Invisible Agent)

"A world premiere: a material which changes its strength, virtually at the touch of a button. This transformation can be achieved in a matter of seconds through changes in the electron structure of a material; thus hard and brittle matter, for example, can become soft and malleable. What makes this development revolutionary, is that the transformation can be controlled by electric signals."
(from Science Daily) Read more...

I can't help but envision this material being used in an anatomical context—an artificial heart, for example; with a control mechanism that mimics the dynamics of an organic heart (responding to fluctuating demands just like a real one). Or artificial muscles of all kinds.

"Below the soft silicon skin of one of Japan's most sophisticated robots, processors record and evaluate information. The 130-cm (four-foot, four-inch) humanoid is designed to learn just like a human infant.
'Babies and infants have very, very limited programmes. But they have room to learn more,' said Osaka University professor Minoru Asada, as his team's 33 kilogram (73 pound) invention kept its eyes glued to him."
Read more here...
and here...