It turns out that nanotechnology existed way before the space age. It's just been discovered that the stained glass windows of churches dating as far back as the ancient middle ages actually act like modern-day air purifiers. Neat, huh?

This means that glaziers - people who cut and fit glass for windows or doors for a living - are probably the first nanomachinists. Whether or not they were aware of it, the simple fact of the matter is that they were using nanotechnology.

See, the glass stained windows of many European churches were created with a bit of gold nanoparticles thrown into the mixture. These gold nanoparticles are the ones that purify the air.

When sunlight hits these particles in the glass, the itty bitty gold flakes start to resonate to the electromagnetic field of the sun's light waves. And once the tiny gold particles get charged up enough, they produce large enough magnetic fields themselves, which break down nearby pollutant molecules in the air.

"In modern language," says Professor Zhu Huai Yong, from Queensland Univeristy of Technology's School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, "photocatalytic air purifier with nanostructured gold catalyst." Say what? A photo-cata-whatta? Just think of it as a solar-powered air purifier.

What's cool though is that this discovery has opened up a potentially unique way of harnessing power, and ultimately, minimizing chemical wastes. As Professor Zhu explains:

This technology is solar-powered, and is very energy efficient, because only the particles of gold heat up. In conventional chemical reactions, you heat up everything, which is a waste of energy. Once this technology can be applied to produce specialty chemicals at ambient temperature, it heralds significant changes in the economy and environmental impact of the chemical production.

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