This edible wrapping1 tastes as good as the food it's protecting
By Joao Medeiros
August 13, 2013 -- Updated 1301 GMT (2101 HKT) | Filed under: Innovations
| (CNN) -- He's invented breathable2 food, flavor clouds and olfactory3 telephones. Now David Edwards is bringing edible food-packaging to the table. Called Wikipearl, the wrapping is held together by calcium4 ions5 and can include particles6 of chocolate, nuts and seeds. The idea came out of a conversation Edwards, professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard, had with a sculptor7 about the concept of tensegrity8. "It's a really interesting property and relevant in terms of rethinking our packaging," he says. "Suddenly packaging becomes part of the culinary9 experience." Wikipearl ice cream and yoghurt were launched in selected Paris stores last June. Edwards began as a biomedical engineer in universities including MIT and Penn State. He left the latter10 in 1998 after he came up with the idea for inhalable11 insulin12 and was approached by Polaris Venture Partners to start a company, Advanced Inhalation Research, with three friends from MIT. It was sold in 1999 to biopharma company Alkermes. After three more years in academia13 at Harvard, Edwards left in 2005 for a sabbatical14 in Paris. "I had a nebular15 notion16 to create an experimental cultural organization in the center of Paris," says Edwards, whose book, ArtScience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation, was published in 2008. He founded Le Laboratoire, a contemporary art and design center, in 2007. The first products to come out of Le Lab were Andrea, a plant-based air filter, and LeWhif, a chocolate inhaler. "Our first products were viewed as whimsical17 and provocative18 and not taken seriously as commercial products," says Edwards. "Our commercial success now is completely based on being able to not care about the market and play with ideas." Edwards says the AeroShot, an air-based energy shot with 100mg of caffeine plus B vitamins, will be in 50,000 stores by the end of the year. Also, last May, he opened an exhibition around the OPHONE, a device that allows users to send olfactory messages. "I'm fascinated by olfactive communication," says Edwards. "More than visual and auditory19, it has real physiological impact." |
1 wrapping: 包裝的外皮 2 breathable: 透氣的 3 olfactory: 嗅覺 4 calcium: 鈣 5 ion: 離子 6 particle: 粒子 7 sculptor: 雕刻家 8 tensegrity: 整體拉張結構 9 culinary: 烹飪 10 latter: 後者 11 inhalable: 可吸入的 12 insulin: 胰島素 13 academia: 學術界 14 sabbatical: 休假 15 nebular: 星雲 16 notion: 概念、主張 17 whimsical: 怪誕、詼諧的 18 provocative: 挑釁的 19 auditory: 聽覺 |
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