Bizarre, Science, Society

MIT Engineers Solve Modern Riddle

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Hard to imagine how the discussion got started, but engineers at MIT have solved one of the modern age’s most pressing problems: How do you get stuck ketchup out of the bottom of the bottle? Foolish waste of time you say? No, the inventors of the special coating claim it will save 1 million tons of the perfectly usable — but inaccessible — condiment.

The research was led by doctoral candidate, Dave Smith, whose team of researchers employed nanotechnology to invent LiquiGlide. The spray-on coating, composed of FDA approved materials, has many applications according to Smith which include food packaging for mayonnaise and ketchup as well as other industrial uses like lubricants for oil and gas pipelines and even car windshields.

LiquiGlide is unique because it’s “kind of a structured liquid,” Smith said. “It’s rigid like a solid, but it’s lubricated like a liquid.” Here’s the stuff in action:

Now, can they please start to work on keeping all those subscription cards from falling out of the magazines.

Source: msnbc

~Mark Esposito, GuestBlogger

36 thoughts on “MIT Engineers Solve Modern Riddle”

  1. Gene,

    🙂

    What mespo said.

    I’ve heard they’re going to give away free samples of LiquiGlide with Viagra prescriptions.

  2. Hasn’t any genius who has ever been frustrated by the problem of getting ketchup out of a bottle ever considered the idea of packaging the condiment in a different-shaped jar with a wide mouth so it can be scooped out with a spoon?

  5. The potential non-food applications of this technology could be very interesting but that does not mitigate the fact that the sentence “I got a job as a hand model for LiquiGlide” probably required an explanation.

  6. Like I would ever trust the FDA on food safety. Teflon is now known to be a poisonous, cancer causing material in cooking. I wouldn’t eat this stuff if you gave me a free lifetime supply!

  7. “such frivoless research” — NOT

    See ARE at 9:02.

    Think very large container of viscous organic material — tanker trailers of syrup or puree. Consider the ease and speed of clean up Millions $$$ will be saved. That translates into less cost increases in food products.

    Is the product durable? Is it impervious to extreme temperatures? Could the process create such products? Reducing friction in all mechanical applications is a tremendous energy saver. Think coated ball bearings.

    See my post at 10:35. Can it be flavored?

    1. People have been trying to lubricate everything for centuries. Messing around with the food supply with various FDA appraoved chemicals so that we can have a tanker full of some synthetic syrup delivered half way around the world does not sound that great to me. We’re already coating ball bearings, it’s called oil. Hey perhaps it might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but before it goes into the food supply, I want to have somebody other than the FDA or some pharmaceutical lab take a close look at it. I think their history gives us a good reason to be apprehensive of their testing system.

  9. Research “unintended consequences” + “nanotechnology” and you will see that this is actually pretty scary. Nanotechnology will probably be the asbestos of the future.

  10. I prefer adding a few drops of water, swish, and pour. Too thin? Combine with that from a fresh bottle and put in meatloaf. -bettykath

    …or add to a batch of homemade soup or stew

    1. @anon nurse. lol . Laziness is throwing away the bottle with condiment still left in it. I bet they were given a grant to research this. Only goverrnment would provide such resourses for such frivoless research.

  13. Here’s a little light verse to go with Mark’s post:

    “Shake and shake the ketchup bottle.
    None’ll come, and then a lot’ll.”
    –Richard Armour

  14. This is same FDA that approved aspertame? I prefer adding a few drops of water, swish, and pour. Too thin? Combine with that from a fresh bottle and put in meatloaf.

    Arthur, I like your application better.

  15. GMO? Organic? . . . .

    So, O.K., I’m a guy and so I thought about . . . well, you know what I thought about, I’m a guy!

  16. Years and years ago my brother recommended to my friend, who managed a small town Ohio College book store, that she invest in a new display item called Compact Discs. All of the recordings were classical symphonies and sonatas but he told her that students would be clamoring for this new technology once they realized the quality of the recordings and durability of the discs and she’d be in on the ground floor when the rest of the music industry caught on to this new technology, so she invested slightly over half of her “new materials” funds. Six days after school started she was sold out and waiting for restock. She added more players to the display and for months she was the only game within a 200 mile radius. I remember well what a gamble it was and how worried she was that the material wouldn’t sell and what kind of trouble she’d be in with her Board of Directors.

    Smith’s structured liquid is going to be huge.

  18. Ohhh, FDA approved materials. Makes me feel all warm, safe and fuzzy. Fifteen years from now, Attorney’s will be advertizing for class action victims with some fancy name for the contraindications.

  19. That looks like the pilots dream! No more problems with icing on wings and stabilizers and maybe props and engine inlets too. I hope they get it on the market soon and/or make it more durable for exterior use in which they could use non-food grade materials.

  20. I wonder what this” special coating:” is made from? I know its been approved, but I still wonder.

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