Only time will tell if other kinds of devices are at risk from those little metal particles that tainted many a laptop cell, but if we had to proffer a guess, we'd say it's pretty unlikely that the QA breakdown which allowed so many batteries to become fire hazards was limited only to the manufacturing processes for notebook power packs.

ENGADGET: CPSC: Sony recall will include laptop batteries only

Nano bar codes are the molecular versions of traditional bar codes--metal nano-particles that have specific, recognizable chemical fingerprints that can be read by a machine, perhaps a UV lamp or optical microscope.

FORBES: Safer And Guilt-Free Nano Foods

They expected to find a high metal content among the larger particles - PM10s and PM 2.5s, but it surprised them to find such high levels in even the very smallest ones.

BBC: Railway tracks

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources followed with its own study, which found that when lead bullets explode inside an animal, imperceptible particles of the metal can infect meat up to a foot and a half away from the bullet wound -- farther than previously thought.

CNN: Should hunters switch to 'green' bullets?

Have you ever been playing around with molten metal salt, when you accidentally created hollow, soft-shelled particles that could one day increase hard disk storage or power future QLED displays?

ENGADGET: Researchers stumble onto 'lava' generated quantum dots, could power future peripherals