What if you had a material that could form itself into a hammer or a wrench on demand? That's the goal of DARPA's Programmable Matter project, described here by program manager Mitchell Zakin.

The idea is what Zakin calls "infochemistry", building structures out of smart, versatile mesoparticles that can bond themselves together on demand, perhaps using techniques like tribocharging - static cling, in ultrasimple terms - or jamming, the technical term for the process that turns sand and water into concrete.

The result, he says, could be materials that assemble themselves and include different mesoparticles to carry out different functions - sensing and computing.

All manufacturing, says Zakin, could be reduced to producing the mesoparticles and assembling them. The results could include airplane wings that instantly change shape, or apparel that automatically adjusts body temperature.

Also on show here from DARPA's Defense Science Office:  a new process to make high-grade titanium at one-tenth of today's $35/pound price tag - so that titanium will be used widely in armor and for simple applications like piping on ships - and HardWire, a low-cost armor made from ceramics wrapped in woven steel wire of the kind used in car tires.