Iron-polymer batteries that generate twice as much power. And there'll be all manner of materials with internal smarts that emulate biological systems, enabling them to adapt to changing conditions, compensate for wear, and warn of impending trouble. Biological metaphors are a frequent theme among nano researchers, partly because they work with things measured in nanometers. This is the scale at which molecules mingle to create DNA and proteins, the building blocks of life. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.
Individual atoms are a few nanometers in diameter.
Indeed, a chief goal of organic-inorganic weddings is to breathe a spark of life into tomorrow's materials progeny. That's not just a dream. The idea, says John H. Weaver, head of materials science at the University of Illinois, is to harness the molecular mechanisms that Nature has evolved for the production of new materials. But each cell actually needs just a tiny chunk of the genetic code to reproduce itself, and it manages to track down only that data. Since all 10 trillion cells replace themselves every few years, the body cranks out new DNA at the amazing rate of 10,000 miles an hour, day in and day out.