Imagine the use of a gel like this for treatment.

FORBES: How IBM Plans To Kill the Staph Superbug

LiquiGlide, a completely food-safe, gel-like substance is applied to the inside of jars intended to hold thick, viscous liquids like honey and mayonnaise.

FORBES: Best Food Innovations Of 2012

Solgels are colloids, or liquids with uniformly dispersed solid particles (like milk) that are converted to gel form.

FORBES: The Science of Small

The nanotubes are mixed into a compound called "bucky gel" to prevent clumping, and after some rubber-like flourinated copolymer is mixed in and it's all poured onto a glass plate, holes are punched in the material to better flexibility.

ENGADGET: Another flexible circuit project emerges, carbon nanotubes to blame

Contrary to the "gel" part of its name, aerogels are highly porous solids that look like frozen blue smoke.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Dr Barbira-Freedman described how they have created a very effective gel which can be used as a "potent anaesthetic" saving people from having to get injections like those used in periodontal treatment.

BBC: Herbal dental remedy a 'potent anaesthetic'

And just as Gatorade and gel-cushioned trainers moved from the racetrack into the mainstream, so yesterday's cutting-edge technology, like graphics cards or online gaming, will filter down to the mainstream market.

ECONOMIST: Are video-gamers heading for the big money?