I found the abstract of the (mostly paywalled) nature paper more helpful.

This seems interesting, though so early days it's hard to tell how practical it'll end up being, especially since it sounds like it relies on the stressed state of the metal. If I understand right, they're causing more cracks and in the process that's cold welding other parts of the metal back together at the same time. And cold welding needs a vacuum, so it could be impractical in that sense too, I'd think.

Bearing in mind also this is a single study, so it remains to be seen whether the findings are replicable.

I'm interested to see where this goes.