Noice was about to sit down to a dinner of french onion soup and crusty wholewheat bread when suddenly something equally french, but infinitely more tasty-looking caught our attention.

Introducing LE WHIF, the product of the tireless of work of Harvard Professor David Edwards and his team of students. Edwards writes: “Over the centuries we’ve been eating smaller and smaller quantities at shorter and shorter intervals. It seemed to us that eating was tending toward breathing, so, with a mix of culinary art and aerosol science, we’ve helped move eating habits to their logical conclusion. We call it whiffing.” All sounds very odd to us, but here goes!

The small lipstick sized plastic container fits comfortably in the hand and is very light. Pull it out, raise it to the lips and inhale! Suddenly a rush of the most delicious chocolate flavor as thousands of aerosol chocolate particles burst onto the tongue. LE WHIF comes in three awesome flavors (Noice loves them all very, very much): Dark (rich, creamy tasting) Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, and Raspberry Chocolate. Each LE WHIF is worth three or four shots (or whiffs?!) of chocolate heavenly-ness and, whilst you’re not enjoying the instant chocolate satisfaction, you can simply click it shut and pop it back into your manbag, purse, or pocket.

LE WHIF is doing the rounds in many of the upperclassmen houses so keep a look out and tell your friends. However, more importantly, come along to the Grand Opening of The Laboratory this Sunday 8th in the late afternoon and witness an incredible (and sometimes chocolaty) collision of art and science. Buy those tickets!

(If you’re interested in learning more about LE WHIF and the other amazing products by this group just go to www.lewhif.com and www.thelaboratory.harvard.edu)

Photos courtesy of www.lewhif.com

No! It's really not like that!

NetworkWorld reports on SEAS’s recent $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a colony of RoboBees, which are exactly what they sound like – robotic bees that fly autonomously and can model real-life colony behavior. Why all the buzz? Harvard’s official RoboBees website explains:

The collaborators envision that the Nature-inspired research could lead to a greater understanding of how to artificially mimic the collective behavior and “intelligence” of a bee colony; foster novel methods for designing and building an electronic surrogate nervous system able to deftly sense and adapt to changing environments; and advance work on the construction of small-scale flying mechanical devices.

While we probably don’t have to worry about swarms of RoboBees descending on the Yard anytime soon, researchers do anticipate that they may be used for artificial pollination, environmental and traffic monitoring, and search and rescue missions.

Image source here

This afternoon, the Harvard Book Store cut the ribbon on its newly-christened Espresso Book Machine, Paige M. Gutenborg. The name of the on-demand book printing contraption was sifted from over 500 contest entries, among them Tome Machine, Humphrey Bookart, and Gutenplenty.

Before the unveiling, speakers Professor Robert Darnton (Director of Harvard Libraries), Jason Epstein from The New York Review of Books, and Dane Neller of On Demand Books LLC gave a few remarks about the future of books, publishing, yadda yadda. Then, finally, everyone got to see what they came for: Paige giving birth to its (her?) first paperback.

Before an ooh-ing and aah-ing audience, Paige printed a copy of the 300-plus page Bay Psalm Book (chosen because it the first book printed in North America, specifically, Cambridge in 1640) in a matter of minutes, which was then bound and funneled out out of the machine, glossy, crisp, and warm, just like fresh-baked cookies emerging from an oven.

Then, the prolific Paige moved on to Einstein’s Relativity. Noice was in awe.

Noice thinks the only thing that would make the Espresso Book Machine even more perfect and ingenious would be, well, if it pumped out espresso alongside your reading material. Dane Neller said he’s working on that.

Quote of the day: “I hope when I cut this ribbon, the damn thing doesn’t explode.”

Looks more like a microwave book machine to us.

Wicked Local Cambridge reports on the latest academic gadget to hit Mass. Ave. On Tuesday, Harvard Book Store will unveil the Espresso Book Machine , which can print library-quality paperbacks from a catalog of over 4.6 million titles, cranking out a 300-pager in 4 minutes. Harvard Book Store owner Jeffrey Mayersohn comments, “My vision is to provide our customers with any book ever written, in any format, and have it either in your hands or at your doorstep the same day,” Obscure books? Espresso? BICYCLE DELIVERY SERVICE? Noice approves.

The best part? You have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to name this bad boy! Harvard Book Store is looking for something “warm, yet snappy,” and encourages the use of puns and “silly and/or obscure literary references.” Contest ends tomorrow, so get your mind brewing!

Image courtesy of http://www.harvard.com/bookmachinecontest/