I thought I had heard of some pretty crazy inventions while writing for BostInnovation, but this next one really caught me off guard. A new product, invented by Harvard Professor David Edwards, allows you to ingest chocolate, or coffee by inhalation.
That’s not a typo. Consisting of a small plastic tube, Le Whif lets you breathe chocolate, and now coffee, to get your caffeine or sugar fix. Even more impressive – it’s less than one calorie per puff. When you use Le Whif, a fine mist of either chocolate or coffee covers your tongue, but is not actually inhaled into your lungs, giving you all of the flavor, and none of the calories.
You’d think inventing something like Le Whif was enough, but not for Professor Edwards. Le Whif is only one innovation that has sprung from a network of innovation centers called the ArtScience Labs, envisioned by Edwards in 2007, then founded and structured in 2008.
Today, the ArtScience Labs have influence in both Boston and Paris, and David is closely involved with both of those locations. According to the ArtScience website, "laboratories where artists and scientists collaborate to produce unusual works of art and design have appeared in Cambridge, London, Los Angeles, Dublin, Madrid, Dresden, Copenhagen, Paris, and many other cities."
During what was BostInno’s first international interview (Edwards was in France at the time), the ArtScience Labs founder explained to me his reasons for founding the labs.
“Creative people all have a similar kind of process…they dream and analyze…sometimes it’s hard for them to find an environment that suits them," he said.
The ArtScience Labs are made to act as that environment, acting as an “idea funnel” to use Edwards' term. At the top of the funnel, creative juices -- ideas -- are collected from students in Boston Public Schools, to college students, and toward the narrower part of the funnel, ideas are refined by experienced lab “artists” and designers, including Edwards himself. Though it could be termed an “idea factory” the non-commercial goal of the labs reminded me a lot of the guys over at The Awesome Foundation, who fund innovation solely to see the new and creative come to life.
As Edwards explained over a fuzzy international connection, “Ideas are developed not immediately as a commercial product, but for the idea process as a celebration of culture.”
Where the ArtScience Labs differ from The Awesome Foundation, however, is that they are backed by French Startup LaboGroup, which has granted marketability to inventions like Le Whif and others. Prototyped in fall of 2008, Le Whif went commercial in 2009 and has been shipping internationally since. If you want to get your hands on one, you can pick it up at Cardullo’s in Harvard Square, or buy it direct from the Le Whif website.
In the meantime, you can bet we’ll be keeping an eye on David Edwards and the ArtScience Labs. With breathable chocolate as the first act, we can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
