Friday, February 18, 2005
Nanotechnology And The Naked Future
I was recently given a Dockers brand shirt by my mother (Yes that essentially means my mom still dresses me) but it was no ordinary shirt. This shirt is impervious to sweat wrinkles, stains and smell. How is this possible? Nanotechnology is how. It has led the micro-fibers in fabric to do amazing things. Here’s how:
One end of a Teflon-like molecule binds to the cotton fiber of the shirt. Other molecules follow, and form an organized layer over top of the cotton due to interactions with the cotton and each other. Hence molecules and layers are assembled with this technology.
Think what this means. If our cloths can’t be stained, won’t get wet when we sweat, won’t smell and are wrinkly free, we could potentially never have to do a load of laundry again. The possibilities are endless. Since this is all on the nanotechnology level it isn’t too far of a leap to assume that over time fabrics will become thinner while maintaining their insulating capabilities. As fabrics get thinner it isn’t much of a further leap to think some day we might not need cloths at all. We may wake up in the morning take a shower smear some lotion on and walk out the door naked as the day we were born but feeling fully clothed.
At first fascinated with this idea because thinking of a bunch of naked people walking around I thought Playboy Channel, but then I realized most of us fall more into the Discover Channel category.
There you have it the scary naked future.
