DIY Living Computer Battery

An anonymous reader writes "Talk about a living battery/pollution clean up/environmentally friendly battery, this seems to fit all the buzz words. Researchers at UMass reported in the journal Science about their sediment battery. 'Derek R. Lovley, UMass microbiologist and team leader, explained how the team used water and sediment from Boston Harbor, a collection of mason jars, ordinary electrical wiring and sterile graphite electrodes to determine the science behind the mechanics of a simple, sediment battery. Using Desulfuromonas acetoxidans (a Geobacter bacteria) the researchers were able to produce enough electrical current to power a lightbulb or a simple computer.'" The linked article is low on details - post 'em in the comments if you have more information on related projects.

Comments

An example of how

[Gortbusters.org]

the Ocean area is under utilized. It is more than just a dumping ground for waste, and more than just a source of fancy foods. Maybe the recently reported new plane-like submarines will help us explore and find better ways of energy.

Shit happens

[Chocolate Teapot]

If you read this paper, it becomes clear that the practice of using human excrement as a natural fertilizer is far from perfect.

Cysticercosis of the central nervous system (neurocysticercosis) is caused by the larval stage (cysticerci) of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium. The two-host life cycle of this tapeworm comprises human beings as definitive hosts and swine as intermediate hosts. Pigs become infected when they ingest human faeces containing T. solium eggs, which develop in the muscle and brain into cysticerci. When people eat undercooked pork containing viable cysticerci, they develop an intestinal tapeworm infection, but not cysticercosis of the central nervous system. Human beings can also become intermediate hosts, however, by directly ingesting T. solium eggs shed in the faeces of human carriers of the parasite. These eggs then develop into cysticerci which migrate mostly into muscle (causing cysticercosis) and into the central nervous system where the cysticerci can cause seizures and many other neurological symptoms (cysticercosis of the central nervous system).

This is particularly prevalent in China, where as you quite rightly observed, human faeces is used as fertiliser.