If they prove a success, these experiments could spur the invention of a host of new designer materials.

ECONOMIST: A new way to build complicated materials, micron by micron

Opponents worry that innocent sites that host user-generated materials could get shut down.

WSJ: Web Piracy Bill Faces Fiercer Fight

The microbiome does many jobs in exchange for the raw materials and shelter its host provides.

ECONOMIST: Modern medicine

Without applied paint, feathers or other materials, it remained an incomplete host.

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Former Greenpeace activist Annie Leonard, author of the book "The Story of Stuff, " and host of an online video, said 99 percent of all the materials that flow through the production process becomes trash within six months.

CNN: Environmentalist: It's becoming a plastic world

Locklin and his colleagues sprayed the substance onto materials and exposed them to ultraviolet light, which causes a covalent bond with the host material.

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