MIT Creates Superhydrophobic Condiment Bottles 292
An anonymous reader writes "First we had a superhydrophobic spray that meant no dirt or sweat could stick to your clothes. Then a hydrophobic nanocoating was created for circuit boards to make them water resistant. Now MIT has gone a step further and solved one of the ongoing problems of using condiments: they've figured out how to make a food-safe superhydrophobic coating for food packaging. It means ketchup and mayonnaise will no longer be stuck to the insides of the bottle, and therefore there will no longer be any waste. What's amusing is this seems to be a happy accident. The MIT team was actually investigating slippery coatings to stop gas and oil lines clogging as well as how to stop a surface from having ice form on it. Now their lab is filled with condiments for continued testing of their food-safe version."
Wrong Item (Score:5, Insightful)
Need superhydrophobic keyboards.
Re:Maybe it's irrational... (Score:4, Insightful)
True, but then there are things that are organic and food and things that are organic and not food--either be indigestible or outright poison. Meanwhile, most said nano organic things are mostly contained until they enter the digestive track--something which above nano-particles are unlikely to be--and aren't inhale-able/injected--there's very few things you can direct inject--, and the body can usually safely broken down in the digestive track those organic nano-particles or they can be contained and expelled by the body before entering the blood stream--a by-product of billions of years of digestive and defensive evolution to extant, potentially lethal organic or inorganic nanoparticles. But, like I was saying, that's still far from foolproof and there's still lots of stuff that can kill us.
So, yea, I understand your pedantic point, but I'm pretty sure the discussion is on man-made nanoparticles and cutting out "man-made" is just shorthand. Meanwhile, I'm not a supporter of the idea of halting the use of man-made nanoparticles until long-term medical studies are done. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do those studies as man-made nanoparticles used, to see if they really are a threat. It's the same with just about anything radically new and innovative, really, because there's a lot of room for not only positive outcomes but pretty extensive side-effects. I mean, I don't think it likely that all the major conceived designs for man-made nanoparticles (ie, the expected foundation and components) have an inherently Achilles heel of being unsafe, but then who's to say there won't be a man-made nanoparticle version of DDT or asbestos and the component responsible is present in a large percentage of man-made nanoparticles? Such would likely mean simply reworking those man-made nanoparticles to overcome the side-effects. Still, the damage would be done. :/ But, that's just a sad truth of life, with hindsight and everything. I mean, to know if progress is harmful or not, you have to progress first. :)
Re:I just flip the bottle upside down (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would Heinz et al bother paying extra so their customers don't waste as much of their product [ie, so they don't return the store and buy more sooner]?
Re:Maybe it's irrational... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but we probably should before declaring something 'food safe'
Re:I just flip the bottle upside down (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, as long as you're using ketchup correctly (an additional flavour, not the only one) they're all much of a likeness. If one company makes a bottle which has no leftover bits (which also makes recycling much easier), it'll fly off the shelves like ketchup from a hydrophobic bottle.
Re:Next step - get rid of those silly bottles (Score:4, Insightful)
About 25 years ago, on a trip in Czechoslovakia (a few years before the fall of the Wall) I experienced those bags for packing milk. My parents told me that in their childhood also in Netherlands plastic bags were used for milk, but such packing had long since been abandoned. Sure convenient to store and little waste, but that's all there is to them.
When opened, they're a pain to store as they don't have the rigidity of a bottle so tend to fall over. They're hard to grab on to, again no rigidity, so great risk of spills or sprays when picking up an opened bag.
And then they just look plain ugly compared to bottles. And, even though the content is the same, a prettier packing commends a higher retail prices and higher sales. That's just how consumers make their choice.
So long story short: the West used them too, long time ago, and it's not just because that this kind of packing is not used any more for anything but small bags of ketchup in McDonald's.
Re:I just flip the bottle upside down (Score:4, Insightful)