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Spinach May Soon Power Mobile Devices
neutron_p writes "For the first time, MIT researchers have incorporated a plant's ability to convert sunlight to energy into a solid-state electronic "spinach sandwich" device that may one day power laptops and cell phones."
The Apple PopiPod, now with Bluto size capacity.
You know, that sounds mighty familiar...
I wonder why they don't use Algae, seems that stuff works extremely well and multiplies fast to prove the point
"Dude, your laptop smells like a swamp!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
organic notebook. Does that make it a cyborg?
Hivemind harvest in progress..
You MIT bastards are gonna pay!
Let's just hope that "People for the Ethical Treatment of Vegetables" doesn't find out.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The biologically based solar cells, which convert light into electrical energy, should be efficient and cheap to manufacture, says co-creator Marc Baldo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
Baldo's team isolated a variety of photosynthetic proteins from spinach and sandwiched them between two layers of conducting material. When light was shone on to the tiny cell, an electrical current was generated...
The prototype cells still need a little refinement. At present, they can generate current for up to 21 days; then they give up. So alternatives that last longer are needed.
The cells also convert only about 12% of the absorbed light energy into electricity. Still, the researchers believe that it should be possible to reach 20% efficiency, which is better than typical values for commercial silicon solar cells.
Full here
It may be that more efficient and more durable chloroplasts can be found or made. The evolution of solar power seems to be going in several directions at once. It makes me wonder what experiments are in progress and not reported yet?
CB(*&^%^*)&^
free ipod and free gmail!
You know you live in the 21st century, when your cell phone is better suited to perform photosynthesis than it is to talk to other people.
Huk-kuk-kug-kug-kug... oh...whaddya know there... nows I can call Olive on me spinachk-phone.
(c'mon! someone had to make the reference!)
We've been using Olive Oil to create light, now spinache to create power, sadly Bluto isn't a viable power source.
On the other hand, if we could generate some form of alternative fuel out of cheeseburgers we wouldn't have to pay until Tuesday.
The article in the summary seems to have been /.ed so here is another article I found.
What an incredibly lame P.C. response to progress. Homelessness is a socio-economic problem, not a scientific one. This same sort of complaint against sciencse/technology has often been heard before, as arguments against the Internet and space exploration. But I never thought I'd hear it on Slashdot. I guess the invasion of the load and clueless is continuing on schedule.
Yeah, maybe I'll loose some karma points here, but I just can't let this sort of whiney idiocy go by without yelling.
My first instinct was, "Wait a minute... they want to add a third wheel to solar energy?" We already have silicon solar panels that convert sunlight into energy. So why add something in between? Wouldn't that be less efficient?
The more I researched, though, the more I realized that my initial reaction was somewhat rash. Think about it: if nature already has a time-proven method, why not harness that rather than reinventing the wheel? Especially if the "reinvented" (silicon) method is less efficient.
I found a CNN article from 2 October 2003 where this idea was explained. Back then, less than a year ago, it was estimated that the efficiency would reach 10 percent by the end of 2004. According to one source referenced by another poster, we're already at 12 percent, and now achieving 20 percent is expected! (According to the CNN article, 20 percent is the efficiency of our current silicon solar power.) If the technology continues to develop at this rate, it could become more energy-efficient than silicon and allow for some very cool technology in the not-too-distant future.
(What exactly that technology might be, I'm not too sure. Who wants a disposable cell phone battery when current ones can be recharged in a couple hours? Anyone have any thoughts on how this tech could be best used?)
the JoshMeister on Security
Beowulf cluster of plants... I believe that's called a "garden".
I used to work in the ag-packaging industry.
Boxes for spinach are very distinctive, because they have a TON of holes in them to allow cooling systems to be more efficient when they're stacked on a pallet in a refrigerated truck etc.
(most boxes for leafy greens-lettuce, etc. have a few holes but nothing like on the scale of spinach boxes)
When I asked about this, I was told that the spinach is so biologically active--even after being picked--that it generated enough heat inside the boxes to require extra cooling--otherwise the shelf life would plummet.
Hint: keep your greens at EXACTLY 34F / 1C (no lower than that, and not much more than a couple of degrees higher). They'll last far, far longer in your refrigerator!
So, I guess that's why they picked spinach for this project. That dark, dark green is there for a reason.
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas