Plastic tubing used in medical equipment could be coated with thin layers of bio-friendly proteins.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

Even human bone can be coated with calcium in this way.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

Moreover, antennas and power connections must be equipped with surge protectors, windows must be coated with wire mesh or conductive coating, and doors must be sealed with conductive gaskets.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Old threat with a new face

Instead of perfectly preserved beef, they found putrid meat so rotten that the stone floors needed to be coated with chloride of lime to mask the stench, according to an account in the Illustrated London News.

BBC: The story of how the tin can nearly wasn't

Spectacles could be coated more effectively with scratch-resistant chemicals, simply by dunking them in the appropriate solution.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

Though they have their differences, they all want to be reborn as tastier dumplings coated with a sweet-bean paste, and to remain side by side, as before, on the same skewer.

ECONOMIST: Gooey trio��s cheery message

To search for a target molecule, then, all that would be needed would be to sprinkle a sample thought to contain it with magnetic nanoparticles coated with the appropriate antibody or DNA and then run it over a spin valve.

ECONOMIST: Labs on a chip

The nastiest-looking arteries might be stabilized with some form of local therapy, such as drug-coated stents, light-activated drugs to kill off inflamed cells or even gene therapy.

FORBES: Peeking at Plaque

They built a thin layer, or "nanostructure, " using minute particles of titanium dioxide, a substance that reacts with sunlight to break down dirt and other organic material and can be coated on cotton to keep the fabric clean.

CNN: Washing no longer dirty work

The material to be tested is liquefied and passed through a filter made up of glass beads which are coated with the antibodies.

BBC: Speedy 'burger bug' test