"Eat" is used very inappropriately here. As far as I know the cells aren't burning the nanowires for fuel. A more correct term would be that silicon nanowires can cross a cell membrane through phagocytosis, which I don't find that surprising.
There are non-nutrition definitions, but those concern wear/destruction of a large object by a small object, not engulfment of small object by large object.
That explains why my dog doesn't understand me when I tell her not to eat the furniture, or rocks. I should just tell her, "don't take in any more rocks!"
That should work, once she understands that she is embarrassing herself and showing a poor command of language by eating non-food, she'll stop!
(It's something she grew out of, like eating logs if they were rotten enough. I don't know if she had pica or was just an even more enthusiastic chewer than the usual puppy)
