The Caffeine Buzz That Keeps on Giving
Those unsettling espresso jitters may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, are trying to engineer a kinder, gentler time-released coffee buzz that will keep you motoring along in a calm, yet alert, state for most of the day.
Research published in Nature Communications (November 17, 2015) focused on adapting “cubosomes”—lipid molecules and water that mimic natural structures in the human body—to release nutrients, medicines or, in this case, caffeine into the body in a more controlled fashion.
The technology for slow-release caffeine would be comparable to the delivery system for some extended-release pharmaceuticals.