Paula Hammond: Nanotechnology is not one single thing. It’s a number of different areas which examine both materials and physics on the nanometer-length scale.

That’s Paula Hammond on engineering materials at scales one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair. Hammond’s a professor in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She said there’s more to nanotechnology than just making springier golf clubs and tennis rackets.

Paula Hammond: We can also engineer materials that are extremely sensitive and can therefore detect something that might cause disease. We might be able to generate biomedical sensors that are extremely accurate.

Hammond and colleagues are developing “smart” uniforms for soldiers, clothes that respond to changes in light and heat, and can even seal themselves from a chemical or biological attack.