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There's probably not much call for printing solar cells on toilet paper, but a method developed at MIT can do just that, if it's ever needed. More to the point, oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) could allow low-cost production of solar cells and other electronic devices on thin, flexible materials that other processes can't easily handle. Miles Barr, a graduate student in the lab of MIT chemical engineering professor Karen Gleason, described the process at the fall meeting of the Materials Research Society, in Boston.

Newsha Ghaeli reached down an open manhole one morning in April and grabbed a hose dangling in the rushing streams of the sewer below. As she pulled up the hose, she spotted a wad of toilet paper clinging to its end and recoiled in disgust, accidentally splashing a few drops of dirty water on strands of exposed hair sticking out from her face mask. A Cambridge, Mass., sanitation worker offered comfort: "A little caca won't hurt you," he said.