Happy Monday, everybody. Here's another interesting item to kick off your week:
How would you like to connect a phone to your jacket, take a walk and power your cell at the same time? How about charging it just from the energy it takes to breath in and out?
According to India's Itv News, it may not be long before you can do just that. Scientists are working on something called nanogenerators, which harvest mechanical energy from physical anatomical movements (or even just a body's inherent bloodflow).
The research explores ways to convert low-frequency vibrations, like arms waving in the air or a heart beating, into electricity using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires. These are teeny, tiny little bits of tech that have a diameter roughly 1/5,000th that of a human hair.
The nanowires are easily grown (yes, I said grown, whatever the heck that means) on surfaces like metals, ceramics, polymers, clothing and even tents, and can work in the air or in liquids if packaged properly. Something this small and universally adaptable is bound to have major ramifications across innumerable applications, from charging consumer devices to military technologies out in the field (where power outlets can be pretty scarce).
According to lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology: "This research will have a major impact on defense technology, environmental monitoring, biomedical sciences and even personal electronics."
Imagine ? a high school track team could generate enough juice to sell power back to the local power plant (making bake sales virtually, and mercifully, obsolete). On the one hand, that's pretty cool. But in all honesty, I?m both excited and a little creeped out by this development. I can't help but remember scenes from ?The Matrix,? where Neo wakes up in a pod and realizes he's a human Duracell.
So, what say youse? Cool future-forward stuff or just weird science?
