Friday, March 9, 2012

Cool Technology of the Week

As readers of my blog may know, I'm a consulting mycologist, treating over 600 patients who ingest toxic mushrooms every year.

Now there's a novel way to use mushrooms to create custom packing materials.

Imagine choosing your packaging based on its absorptive, cushioning, and strength criteria, then just growing the package you need.

It seems like science fiction but a  New York company is doing this.

Ecovative Design  "grows"  packaging components for Dell Inc. servers and Crate and Barrel furniture, among others.

Mushroom-based packaging you can custom grow for each customer.  That's cool!

3 comments:

Chris Howe said...

Another Cool Technology though not really related is Neverwet. It hasn't hit the market yet but it looks very promising... The application for the healthcare industry is HUGE!!! Imagine Scrubs that never need washed, or customer facing electronic equipment that never needs cleaning maintenance.

I know you pioneer in most Healthcare IT initiatives, and this is another realm I could see you guys on the forefront of. check them out at www.neverwet.com.

P. M. Hollott said...

The obvious question is, can you eat the packaging once it has served it's purpose, thus reducing waste?

Kevin Groff said...

I will admit, we pride ourselves on being "green". I am speaking as an individual employee and not on behalf of Dell. But bamboo packaging, our recycling efforts, etc. make me proud of our environmental record.
(Disclosure: I work at Dell in Healthcare Services)