Poor old paper seems a little bit like yesterday's news with tablets and e-readers now commonplace. But what if you could have a waterproof newspaper, banknote or wallpaper? Lovers of paper rejoice, as nanoengineering is enabling paper to have a whole new range of properties.

Roberto Cingolani, scientific director at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa, Italy has used nanoengineering to bond nanoparticles with the monomers (single molecules) which paper is composed of. Magnetic nanoparticles are dispersed in a solution and the paper is dipped into or spray coated with this solution. A nano-shell is created around each individual fibre of the paper, from the molecular level upwards. This creates a waterproof sheet you can doodle on, print from or make bad-ass paper airplanes with.

The polymeric matrix (paper and nanoparticles) can be finely tuned by mixing up the contents and varying the concentration of the nanoparticles. Increase the amount of ferric (magnetic) nanoparticles and you have magnetic paper. Add in some colloidal silver and the paper is anti-bacterial! Multi-purpose paper like this has instant utility for medicine and banking security, but the future creative uses of smart paper also have us excited!