'Stretchable' toothpaste-like battery offers flexible future for gadgets

Rigid, bulky batteries could one day be replaced by soft, flexible ones, a new paper argues.

Scientists at a Swedish university have created a new form of a soft, fluid-based battery that can be shaped to meet any form, according to findings published Friday in Science Advances.

“The texture is a bit like toothpaste," co-author Aiman Rahmanudin said in a statement. 

That flexible quality means the ability to 3D-print the battery in any form — opening up the way for "a new type of technology,” Rahmanudin added.