August 22, 2008 4:00 AM PDT
Jason Campbell, a senior staff scientist with Intel Research, described devices called catoms that collectively could be assembled into materials that are in effect programmable.
Here, he holds two basic models. Intel expects catoms to be miniaturized over time. Because catoms can communicate and interact electromagnetically, they'll be able to take up more or less volume, Intel said, so that shape-shifting and color-changing materials can be built from them.
Photo by Stephen Shankland/CNET News
