A lubricant called LiquiGlide, developed initially at MIT, is the potential savior for all those frustrated by bottles of ketchup, shampoo, lotion, and everything else where there's always something left behind. Nothing like a side-by-side demo, is there? (Credit: Fast Company screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) I don't know what you have in your shower, but I have those bottles of soap from Sephora. You know the ones -- they have different smells like raspberry sorbet, almond ice cream, and Keira Knightley. I paraphrase, but not by all that much. Anyway, it's always hard to get the last bit of sorbet out of the bottle. You leave it upside down, hoping that the soap will all come out smoothly during the next shower. Then the plastic seems to crinkle a little too much. Then you squeeze and still there's soap left over. This has been going on ever since the days of glass bottles of ketchup and mayo. What this problem clearly needed was some large heads at MIT. Thankfully, the egg-headers finally got onto it and created LiquiGlide. Initially, they focused on getting the ketchup out. Now Dave Smith, the clever man behind the idea, has left MIT and turned LiquiGlide into a company that will ease your frustrations more powerfully than Diazepam. As Fast Company reports, he's now perfected his lubricant to such a degree that he believes he can make it work for just about anything that gets put in a bottle, even glue. Being of smart business mind, Smith doesn't actually want you to know what his magic substance consists of. His new company's CEO, Carsten Boers, hinted to Fast Company that its texture is not dissimilar to a sponge. The promise is, of course, that it's also odorless and tasteless. Naturally, the company is keen to stress that this marvelous substance will avoid waste. It might also have a heavy effect on another imperfect product delivery device: the pump. More Technically Incorrect Microsoft's Twitter account: Don't use our e-mail Sexting teen convicted of child pornography Polar Vortex great for business (online porn business, that is) Plane crashes, woman dies, survivor films and takes selfie Court to Yelp: Reveal names of negative reviewers Surely you, too, have tried to pump away at a soap or toothpaste receptacle and somehow the pump never quite manages either to work or to get the final amounts of liquid up to the top. The LiquidGlide coating has to be manipulated, depending on the substance inside the container and the substance from which the container is made. However, given that all its ingredients are reportedly FDA approved, the range of its potential uses -- both consumer and industrial -- seems limitless. I know you'll tell me Heinz has made upside-down bottles that now make it easier to get the ketchup out. But even with those I find myself shaking out the last drops. And I have to unscrew the top, too. Shaking a bottle like a demented craps player shaking the dice just isn't a good look, is it? Even if you smell like Keira Knightley.
A lubricant called LiquiGlide, developed initially at MIT, is the potential savior for all those frustrated by bottles of ketchup, shampoo, lotion, and everything else where there's always something left behind.
Nothing like a side-by-side demo, is there?
(Credit: Fast Company screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
I don't know what you have in your shower, but I have those bottles of soap from Sephora.
You know the ones -- they have different smells like raspberry sorbet, almond ice cream, and Keira Knightley.
I paraphrase, but not by all that much.
Anyway, it's always hard to get the last bit of sorbet out of the bottle. You leave it upside down, hoping that the soap will all come out smoothly during the next shower. Then the plastic seems to crinkle a little too much. Then you squeeze and still there's soap left over.
This has been going on ever since the days of glass bottles of ketchup and mayo. What this problem clearly needed was some large heads at MIT.
Thankfully, the egg-headers finally got onto it and created LiquiGlide. Initially, they focused on getting the ketchup out. Now Dave Smith, the clever man behind the idea, has left MIT and turned LiquiGlide into a company that will ease your frustrations more powerfully than Diazepam.
As Fast Company reports, he's now perfected his lubricant to such a degree that he believes he can make it work for just about anything that gets put in a bottle, even glue.
Being of smart business mind, Smith doesn't actually want you to know what his magic substance consists of.
His new company's CEO, Carsten Boers, hinted to Fast Company that its texture is not dissimilar to a sponge. The promise is, of course, that it's also odorless and tasteless.
Naturally, the company is keen to stress that this marvelous substance will avoid waste. It might also have a heavy effect on another imperfect product delivery device: the pump.
More Technically Incorrect
- Microsoft's Twitter account: Don't use our e-mail
- Sexting teen convicted of child pornography
- Polar Vortex great for business (online porn business, that is)
- Plane crashes, woman dies, survivor films and takes selfie
- Court to Yelp: Reveal names of negative reviewers
Surely you, too, have tried to pump away at a soap or toothpaste receptacle and somehow the pump never quite manages either to work or to get the final amounts of liquid up to the top.
The LiquidGlide coating has to be manipulated, depending on the substance inside the container and the substance from which the container is made.
However, given that all its ingredients are reportedly FDA approved, the range of its potential uses -- both consumer and industrial -- seems limitless.
I know you'll tell me Heinz has made upside-down bottles that now make it easier to get the ketchup out. But even with those I find myself shaking out the last drops. And I have to unscrew the top, too.
Shaking a bottle like a demented craps player shaking the dice just isn't a good look, is it? Even if you smell like Keira Knightley.
