If this weren’t a Cornell University press release, I’d think it was a joke: using nanoparticles electrostatically placed on fabric fibers, a woman has created a (high fashion!) coat that can disable bacteria, viruses, and even oxidize smog, rendering it harmless.
I mean, wow. Cool! But there’s one problem: it’s on the pricey side, at $10,000 per square yard. But that’s only $1100 per square foot, or, lessee… eight and a half bucks a square inch. That’s about a dollar per square centimeter! A bargain!
Now if we could make one that would render creationists and global warming deniers harmless… Tip of the very tiny chapeau to Boing Boing.