It may seem like commonly known applied physics today, but you can bet 1600 years ago it was a pretty amazing engineering fete to create a glass that automatically changed colors when different liquids were put in it. 1600 years from now I'm sure our successors will be calling the quantum computers we're toying with simple applied physics instead of engineering as well.
The argument is the use of the word nanotechnology. They were not engineering things on the nano scale, they were just mixing ingredients together. If the definition of nanotechnology is incidentally using nano scale particles, then the word is essentially meaningless because everything would be nanotechnology.
The grievance is that bloggers and journalists throw these buzzwords around for attention, and their articles end up being ridiculous, and if you're picky about definitions, outright false.
