Caffeine boost
Coffee is something to put into people; it is also something to put onto people. Though some folk choose to roast, brew and drink coffee, innovative scientists use the bean and its byproducts to make cosmetics.
Fernanda Maria Pinto Vilela and her colleagues at Brazil鈥檚 Federal University of Juiz de Fora did a worldwide search for every recent patent that applies coffee to that purpose. They found patents for producing emulsions, gels, suspensions, solutions, powders, aerosols, sticks, creams, lotions, ointments, shampoos, serum, soaps, essences, masks and sprays 鈥� all of them meant to be dripped, rubbed or otherwise applied to human skin. Some are designed specifically for lips, some just for scalps, some only for the neighbourhood of the eyes.
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Most of the new patents come from either China or South Korea. Here are some that drew special attention from the team: an unguent for the lower eyelid that 鈥渇orms a breathable biological film in cooperation with oat sugar to lift the periphery of the eyes鈥�; a cream 鈥渨hich can reduce lip wrinkles鈥�; a 鈥減ure natural bath composition with a frosting effect鈥� and a substance that 鈥渟uppresses the generation of senile body odor鈥�. One of them includes 鈥渁 formula that prevents hair loss and promotes hair and uses coffee powder obtained from grounded coffee鈥�.
The Brazilian patent searchers published their roundup in the . They note 鈥� lamentedly 鈥� that 鈥渁lthough Brazil is the largest coffee producer worldwide鈥�, none of these patents come from Brazil.
A royal endeavour
Stimulated by the news about new inventions in coffee cosmetics, Feedback did a patent search for recent innovations in another of coffee鈥檚 non-gustatory uses: coffee enemas. Six new patents for coffee enema technology were published during the past year, all in China.
This perhaps marks an international passing of the torch. Until recently, the UK led the world in exploring and promoting coffee enemas鈥� benefits. The , the now former Prince Charles, recently assumed new professional duties. Unless someone else is appointed soon to carry on the work, UK industry and the general populace might soon face a coffee enema gap.
Abyss of infinite lunacy
The academic field called evolutionary psychology suffers from an image problem among scholars in general. There is a suspicion that much of the discussion there is just slick storytelling, with only skimpy evidence for the stories. Some reputations, complainers grumble, are more marketed than earned.
Even many marketing professors are known to keep their distance from evolutionary psychology. But they shouldn鈥檛, suggests Gad Saad, a marketing professor at Concordia University in Canada, in a study called , published in the Journal of Business Research.
Saad says: 鈥淓volutionary psychology suffers from an image problem amongst marketing scholars, many of whom remain uninterested at best and hostile at worst in applying the evolutionary lens within their research programs.鈥� This is sad, Saad implies. He then explains, wordily: 鈥淭he reality is that innumerable theoretical, epistemological, methodological, and applied benefits would accrue to marketing academics and practitioners alike by adopting the evolutionary framework within the science and practice of marketing.鈥�
Saad has published extensively. His papers include , and a . That paper asserts: 鈥淏reastfeeding women serve as a group of particular interest when studying the effects of oxytocin, as they are under its influence,鈥� going on to say that 鈥渂reastfeeding women are less prone to retaliate than men鈥� when a company treats them, as customers, unfairly.
In a recent called 鈥淭he corrosive effects of idea pathogens鈥�, Saad issues a battle cry against those who make foolish claims: 鈥淚 use a neuroparasitological framework to argue that a superficially enticing set of idea pathogens have parasitised countless people in the West leading us resolutely towards the abyss of infinite lunacy.鈥�
Feedback on Howls
Physicist Michael Berry sent Feedback feedback about our recent glance at research papers by Howls, Howling and Howling, about howling and other acoustic phenomena. Howls 鈥� Christopher Howls 鈥� was once Berry鈥檚 student. In fact, Howls鈥檚 treatise, a joyful look at logarithmic catastrophes at acoustic horizons, opens: 鈥淭his paper is dedicated to Sir Michael Berry in celebration of his 80th birthday.鈥�
Berry鈥檚 own note is dedicated to another Feedback item. 鈥淚 can also contribute to your mention of the 11-year publication delay [endured by ecologist Peter Shaw]. Longer is the interval between submission (1747) and publication (1763) of a paper by Thomas Bayes (he of the eponymous statistics)鈥�, published in . But 鈥淚 would be surprised,鈥� says Berry, 鈥渋f this 16-year delay is the longest鈥�.
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