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Comment by hagy | Hacker News Reader

Concerns of breathing in this silicate have been popping up a lot in this discussion (especially concerns about silicosis). I’d just like to point out that we’re discussing very small quantities; nano-coatings of ~100nm, only 15-30 molecules high as mentioned in the articles. Wikipedia states that the silicate clusters ascribed to silicosis each have a diameter of ~10 microns; each clusters is 100 times larger than the thickness of this coating. Additionally, the article states that the silicate coating chemically bond to the applied surface. Such silicate bonds only cleave at high temperatures (500 deg C) so the coating won’t evaporate off under ambient conditions.

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I'm actually far less alarmed about the material. It sounds pretty great. What worries me is this fixation we seem to have with eliminating bacteria... Isn't there a downside to this?

If we spread it around as much as this article describes it seems to me like we'd greatly sanitize our environment... What happens if we greatly reduce the amount of bacteria we're exposed to daily due to some sort of invention like nano spray-on glass?

First bacteria that figures out how to stick to this will have nice place to live and develop, plenty of human associated food and no competition.

So we have to engineer the bacteria ourself and make it defend our precious silicon coating.

Yep. Definitely betting on the bacteria, myself.

There are some places you'd prefer not to have bacteria, though.

In dealing with the sick and in preparing food come to mind.

I wouldn't mind it for electronics either.

Like scotty79 said, we'll just end up in another 'antibiotic-resistant bacteria'-type situation. Some bacteria will find a way to thrive on those surfaces, and we'll have little defense against it. By that time we'll be largely dependent on those types of surfaces and it won't be easy to change everything out.

Time to start working on the pre silica-resistant-bacteria-killer startup research.

I guess it is called 'normal bacteria'.

> the coating won’t evaporate off under ambient conditions

They say a coating lasts about a year, which is what is prompting this type of questions. What happens to it after a year? Does it stick to various things that come in contact with the coating? Does it break off and fall to the floor?

Saying the coating lasts a year may imply that within a year the coating sustains enough damage to render it less effective. For instance 99% of the coating may be intact while a small portion has fragmented off due to imperfections in the formation of the initial layer. Additionally many surfaces, especially countertops, are themselves damaged at the micron scale in regular use. If a layer of the initial surface fragments off it will leave an uncoated surface behind.

There additionally may be other mechanisms by which the coating is rendered less effective within a year, but I highly doubt a significant portion of the coating detaches from the surface within a year.

>a small portion has fragmented off

I think the question was specifically about this - what has happened to that small portion?

None of what you said gives me any comfort. In fact the opposite. I thought the lungs have a chance to capture large particles and that too small particles getting into your lungs is the cause of disease.

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