How cool are chestnuts?

Nature has ingenious ways of wrapping its products in compostable packages.

For example, chestnuts:

Photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Oranges:

Photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

 Or onions:

Photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

What if we did the same? Researchers at Harvard University are taking a cue from nature to create edible packaging for food. Read about it at the Scientific American.

Don't ask me how it works - but maybe the science genius behind Stars and Spice can help us understand how they created "a membrane made of charged particles of edible substances bound by electrostatic forces." (Stars and Spice, if you don't know, is written by my sister)

 p.s. Seriously - how cool are chestnuts?