You Had Me at Nano

"Nanotechnology," or engineering of things that are really, really small, has always seemed to be limited to science fiction. But real live scientists work with it in a whole heap of ways, one of which is apparently devising ways to eliminate laundry from the world.

Before you get all excited and/or repulsed about the prospect of global nudity, what I meant was that some of the developing nanotech would make clothes that would either clean themselves or repel any substance that might stain them. Some of the fabrics would be made of substances that couldn't absorb moisture or be coated with something that blocked it -- and without moisture, there's no ability to stain the fabric.

The downside is that, according to Star Trek: The Next Generation, nanotechnology can develop into a self-replicating race and form its own civilization that must be understood and negotiated with by a wise bald human and the galaxy's dumbest android. Fortunately, the catalyst for such a mechanical race is an experiment by an preternaturally smart and eternally annoying wish-fulfillment adolescent character who would never be allowed near that kind of technology anywhere but in Gene Roddenberry's blinkered vision.