Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Powered by Blood

Posted by michael on from the meatbots dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Bringing us one step closer to becoming centrally-controlled meatbots, Japanese scientists have developed a device that produces power from the glucose in human blood. Theoretically, this technology (aka "Dracucell") could produce 100W of power. Of course, it can't produce that much power in practice since your body stupidly wastes glucose in maintaining homeostasis. The scientists propose that this devices could be used to power implanted devices. Now how many of you Slashdotters would it take to power my laptop? I'll buy the cola!"

1 of 516 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Some Interesting New Products... by IWorkForMorons · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've read through some of the comments, and I have seen jokes refering to diabetes, but no serious comments. I'm personally a little disappointed. I have a friend who's lived with diabetes through most of her life, and it is NOT FUN!

    I can't count the times when she's passed out from too much or too little sugar in her blood. I can't even count the number of times she's told me how she's laid back in bed having a reaction, not doing anything about it because she just wants the nightmare over with. Luckily, she has a family that cares too enough for her to not let her do that. A device that would efficiently control the glucose levels, without daily and usually unreliable amounts of insuline injections, would be a godsend for her. Diabetes isn't just some disease that you can live with and not worry. For people with the disease, it literally is a daily struggle. They find ways to live with it, but they can't lead a normal life. She has blood clots in her eyes from the sugar build up. Wounds take about twice as long to heal on her. She's lost teeth because they are rotting from the inside. She's been told by doctors that she will be lucky to make it to 50. A lot of people think that "oh you just need to take a shot every once in a while. What's so bad about that?" Unless you have the disease, or know someone who does, you can never really know the horrors it brings.

    Forget human batteries. Lets start focusing on real life-saving applications.