[lit-ideas] Teflon

   
    
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  Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos. 
  
That irresistible "new car" smell has Teflon in it.  Did you know that 95% of 
the population of the U.S. has Teflon in their blood stream? I forget the 
details, but I think once it's there, it's there for good.  Teflon is 
everywhere, including dashboards, the containers that french fries come in, 
just about anything and everything.  They're finding it's not as safe as they 
thought, but the real hazard is to people who work in the plants that make this 
stuff more so than the end users.  Still, the jury will be out for a while on 
how end users will fare over the years from it.  What difference does it make 
anyway, right?  It makes life more pleasant, and we're going to die anyway.  It 
poisons the earth though. 
   
  The up and coming blockbuster is nano technology.  Nano technology is taking 
a substance and working with it on a molecular level, which changes its 
properties completely.  Supposedly it's now already in (among a lot of things) 
sunscreen.  Titanium dioxide is the white mineral that they use in sunscreen 
that reflects back UV rays.  But it's white and pasty looking.  Using nano 
technology they reduce the titanium dioxide to its molecular size and it's no 
longer white and pasty; it disappears.  Wonderful, right?  But, at the size of 
an atom or collection of atoms harmless old titanium dioxide is now also 
capable of not only penetrating the skin and getting into the blood stream, but 
the particles are so small that they can wind up ... who knows where?  The 
blood brain barrier ordinarily keeps stuff out, but it can't stop something the 
size of a nano.  It will be interesting to see all the things that will be 
developed with nano tech.  Nano tech stain repellent clothes are
 old news now.  That's not the same (in my opinion) as putting it right on the 
skin and watching it absorb.  I imagine nano tech Teflon is just around the 
corner... 

       
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Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
 Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.

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