Slashdot Mirror
Bacteria Powered Batteries
Agent Provocateur writes "SpaceDaily reports on
a battery that is powered by chemical reactions caused by bacteria.
A Pentagon-backed project, University of Massachusetts researchers Swades Chaudhuri, an Indian, and Derek Lovley, an American, say the battery's source is an underground bacterium that gobbles up sugar and converts its energy into electricity.
Their prototype device ran flawlessly without refuelling for up to 25 days and is cheap and stable." The chemistry behind this thing isn't really that complex - keeping the bacteria alive and kicking during that time is prolly the tougher part - you can read more on Al Jazeera, and USA Today. Now, what about replacing this battery?
Is it on the back of a Delorean?
Now I finally have a use for all that old pizza stacked up in the corner of my room......
"A clean green technology? Commie hippie anti-capitalist root-eating sons of socialists!" ::CEO starts having a heart attack::
i wonder what the bastard will smell like.. if it isn't pleasant, might take a while to gain acceptance.
then again, if it smells like garbage, maybe it could attract flies, and maybe the flies could feed it.. ah, that would be funny.
to turn leftover food into gas!
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
I've been running my fridge that way for years now!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Can you run your fridge off what's closest to the back in there?
-- Free speech is only free if your time is worth nothing.
Scientists say 50 grammes of sugar would keep a 40-watt light bulb lit for eight hours.
Now, what I will do, is to just connect this liposuction device with me and their innovation, turn my fat into hydrogen and fuel my car. I assume my excess kgs of excess fat will take me to whereever I want. Haha! Here we come McDonald's!
Imagine,
a stack of left over pizza suspended by a magnet waiting above "the Pit". when the power drops, the pizza drops.... voila, instant power back-up...
Need more power???, just add pizza.
Why are other peoples sig's always more witty ???
A colony of e-coli bacteria? Like I don't already have enought of that shit floating round my kitchen.
will suddenly be in demand on long flights
Yes, lets keep our fictional facts straite.
Be sure your batteries get plenty of fiber to avoid constipation.
Now when we say our battery died, we'll mean it literally.
One Can Never Own Enough Musical Instruments...
Finally my B.O. is more than just a pretty smell...
photoplankton
Walk away from the conference table for a few seconds, when you come back there are no doughnuts left! Just a laptop and cell phone sitting there innocently. They'll never tell....
...
. . . for the bacteria.
So, that case of Jolt will now keep BOTH you and your laptop going for that all-nighter! Very convenient.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
"Just a spoonful of sugar makes the cell phone turn on, the cell phone turn on..."
Kick in the Head
When the bacteria take over, there is gonna be MAJOR payback.
If this comes through my fridge could be self powering by using that really old yoghurt that's in it! ;-)
My underwear could generate a few megawatts.
Trolling is a art,
Instead of kids needing batteries for toys, they'll all be going, 'mommy, can I have a pet battery for Christmas?'.
Now your Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger really does have power, and it really morphs too, albeit into a green blob of goo that will probably stain the carpet and be toxic to eat.
yeah they did that in that other movie too :p
i think it was called The Matrix
Free the battery bacteria!
No slavery for electricity!
How many Rhodoferax died for your Walkman today?
Single-celled life forms are people too!
Et cetera, et cetera....
Coffee sweetners become the new unleaded.
It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's just hilarious. -B.Hicks-
Amazingly, I've been able to obtain this confidential photograph of their prototype.
Interesting bacteria.
Lets see, metal fillings in my teeth, a candy bar, and I am wireless! Sign in restaurants "Please refrain from plugging into our sugar bowls"
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
Now when they x-ray your laptop at the airport, either:
a) your batteries will all die or
b) they'll mutate into a super hero or villan and take over the city.
Regradless, this is just another typical slashdot "Technology of the FUTURE!" article about something that we'll never hear about again. 99% of all "new technology" articles on slashdot just sort of fade away.
So if I catch someone recharging a half discharged battery do I report them?
That's just to overcome everyone's assumption in the US that unless stated otherwise, it was invented here, back in WWII.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
If you think about it, the cost of sugar is nothing. Just go to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Many people get their coffee daily. Just grab some sugar packets wherever you go.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
I can imagine the new movie already....
I'm still wondering if this variety of battery would have any ethyl alcohol output...
I could use a laptop battery that puts out a nice little shot of vodka for the end of the day. This feature could also motivate users to take very-good care of their bacteria.
JMR
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
pff, damned typo's due to keyboard covered in cola...
ahhrggghhh! my fingers! they are eating my fingers!
I wonder if this means energy plants in the future will be pretty rotten places.
Just as I was getting set up to rant, I discover that "prolly" is now a recognised acronym for "probably".
To newspeak is good. I did plus ungood thoughtcrime.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Provide a box of doughnuts & a treadmill and we have a new use for fat people!
Have you read USA Today before?
From Al Jazeera:
"The bug in question is Rhodoferax ferriducens, which was found in airless sediment deep below ground at a terrestrial site at Oyster Bay, Virginia, and identified as a promising candidate for oxidising simple sugars."
USA Today:
"Bacteria are tiny living things. So tiny you can't even see them with your eyes! You need a microscope to see them. Microscopes help scientists see very small things."
note: usa today quote made up for fun's sake.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
wats ur prob? lngwg alwys evolvs. lemme ax u somfin, do u use cntractns? prolly do, sinc u sed "I'll". dis is no diffrnt, u only sav 2 lttrs.
Ow. That sprained my language center.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Somewhere, there is a tiny bacteria named NEO being offered a blue pill.....
One step closer.
83% Efficient? Thats impressive, if true. If you think that a typical car engine is only 20% efficient. Maybe one day you could run your car on Glucose..
Damn... and then putting sugar in someone's gas tank won't be a way to disable their car...
Just use LifeSavers as the battery. Instead of a pair of double-A's, get a roll of double-mints.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
Lysol. Kills 99% of airborne bacteria. Now with patented Dura-kill for those tough to reach batteries.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."