HIGH POINT - Look at a strand of human hair. Pinch one of your own between your fingers, or just admire one on someone else's head.
  Now try to imagine it divided by 100,000.
  What can something that small do?
  Well, imagine a world where stains no longer threaten your white shirts.
  Imagine a world where you take smaller doses of pain medication to get rid of that headache.
  Imagine a world where can?cer patients have a safer, more effective alternative to chemotherapy.
  That world isn't too far down the road, experts say, thanks to developments in nanotechnology, which deals with molecules and atoms at the smallest scales imaginable.
  President Bush signed into law in 2003 the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which authorized $3.7 billion in federal nanotech-related spending during the next four years.
  "It's not magic or anything," said Jag Sankar, director of the Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at N.C. Agricultural & Technical State University. "It's manipulating things at a very tiny level. Everybody is looking at nanotechnology as an enabling technolog y." CAMSS has completed 21 projects, at a cost of more than $10 million, focused on nanotechnology for organizations such as the Army Research Lab, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense. The centers five ongoing projects are worth $9.3 million.
  Sankar's center has been working on new developments such as the electronic nose, which someday might be able to detect toxins and pathogens in the air. CAMSS also is working on tissue engineering and creating artificial bone.
  While most of the projects Sankar is working on are new, Quar Tek Corp. in High Point is looking for ways nanotechnology can improve products already on the market.
  "The idea is to produce new materials ... that possess different functionalities that add enough benefit to the value of the product," said Reyad Sawafta, "Quar Tek makes more than 400 novel classes of nanomaterials." president and chief executive officer of Quar Tek Corp. in High Point.
  Several months ago, Quar Tek signed a deal with Consolidated Ecoprogress Technology Inc. to replace their plastic feminine hygiene products with non-hydrocarbon- based materials that biodeg rade.
  Quar Tek makes more than 400 novel classes of nano-materials that can be used in coatings, packaging and anti-viral subs tances.
  One of the commercial developments during the past 18 months has been the arrival of shirts treated with nanotechnology. Brands like Lands End now sell cotton shirts coated with nano-sized particles that prevent stains and wrinkles.
  "They're so small, you don't feel it," said Dixon Johnston, adviser to Quar Tek, skimming his hand over his wrinkle-free shirt.
  While this industry grows, Sankar said hes quick to remind himself there are many things we have yet to learn about nanotechnology.
  "Nanotechnology is going to get people to think big," he said. "Overall, it's fantastic, but if we do away with all of the negatives, it will be better.