Ancient nanotechnology? Not!

Another grossly misleading headline: "Ancient Hair Dye Used Nanotechnology", referring to a quite serious article available in full here.

The Discovery News headline is much better: "Ancient Hair Dye Worked at Nano-Level". Excerpt:

The authors of a study in the current issue of the journal Nano Letters not only found that ancient hair dyes actually work, but that they are comparable to products, such as Grecian Formula, available today.

Since nanocrystals form within hair during the blackening, the findings also suggest quantum physicists could use hair, or hair-like fibers, to grow quantum dots — tiny controlled atoms — for use in high-tech lasers, sensors, computers and other devices.

Don't rush out to mix up a batch, though: the key ingredient is lead. This study also raises questions about other historical concoctions' ability to impregnate hair with heavy metals -- which could call into question past studies' use of hair samples as evidence of heavy metal ingestion.

Posted by David on October 5, 2006 1:36 PM