A new antibacterial process for clothing embeds microscopic "daggers" that eviscerate microbes as they come into contact with your garments. The upshot is that you'll be able to get socks that don't get smelly, panties that cure yeast infections and uniforms that kill anthrax spores.
When bacterial or fungal spores approach the fabric, their negatively charged fatty membranes are attracted to positive charges on the nitrogen-rich rings and to the fat-seeking blades. This forces the bug or spore onto the blade, which then penetrates the bacterial membrane.
Once inside, this charged end wreaks havoc and kills the spore by disrupting the delicate bonds inside. Each spore encounters a number of these molecular chains and eventually breaks up. "The bacteria effectively spill their guts," says Engel.
"It's like resting on a bed of nails", adds his colleague JaimeLee Iolani Cohen of Pace University in New York. Household detergents, also mixtures of fatty and charged groups, disperse dirt and germs in a similar way but cannot be anchored to clothing.
