The effect of these strengthened winds whipping across the sea surface is to bring deeper, more carbon-rich water up from below, thus reducing the surface layer's capacity to absorb more CO2 from the air.

ECONOMIST: Climate change

The result is that any coating, such as an antibacterial layer, would be "self-repairing" after small amounts of damage, as the molecular chains just below the damaged layer re-cover the surface.

BBC: Coating heals itself after damage

The magic, it turns out, is in that subatomic spray, as the group treated with an electron shower benefited from a polymerizing effect or, more plainly, a bonding of molecules just above the skin's surface that yielded a tough, protective nano-layer measuring between 50- to 100-billionths of a meter thick.

ENGADGET

It appears the major sticking point concerns the depth of the memory layer on which data is written: HD-DVD favors a data layer 0.6mm beneath the surface of the disk, the same depth as on the current generation of DVDs.

ENGADGET: DVD format war: Matsushita says Toshiba needs to give up

The ozone layer protects living things on the Earth's surface from the Sun's ultra-violet radiation.

BBC: Ill wind 'killed dinosaurs'