Jet Engine on a Chip

Roland Piquepaille writes "Today, our handheld devices are powered by batteries, which are heavy and inconvenient. Fuel cells are just arriving on the market as a replacement. But there is a new contender: micro gas turbine engines under development at the MIT. Engineers there shrunk jet engines to the size of a coat button. And their blades which span an area smaller than a dime can spin a million times per minute and produce enough electricity to power your PDA or your cell phone. While there are still a few hurdles to overcome, these micro turbine engines should be operational in two or three years, with commercial products available four years from now. These micro jet engines also have the potential to free soldiers or travelers from carrying heavy batteries. The engineers even think their engines on a chip could be used in poor countries to bring electricity there. This summary gives you the essential details about a technology which promises to free us to carry extra fuel instead of batteries."

Comments

Yeah, uhm, wait what?

[DoorFrame]

Am I going to need to crary jet fuel around with me, because that could become real inconvenient. Also, is it going to make that jet engine noise? Am I going to have to deal with exhaust? If I were to attach one to a balloon, would it be able to propel the thing around the room?

Geh, what a weird idea.

I See Irony

[Brother Grifter]

From post:

The engineers even think their engines on a chip could be used in poor countries to bring electricity there.

And once the bright engineer from America finds he can help poorer countries have electricity, these poor folks will have access to more education, and will in a short time become "high quality technology workers."

Then we find the engineer who started all this loses their job, or their industry is purged, so we can send work to the "the zippies" (read Tom Friedman) and big multi-national corps win out, the original inventor is treated like an old useless animal, not even worth slaughtering since its tasteless now.

Ok, so maybe this is a bit dramatic, but isn't it almost creepy how you can see inventions like this come back to haunt us. Computers already fucked us science-friendly people after we thought we had it good. Let's be good to our fellow humans and just give them food and whatever else they need to be healthy. When it comes to education, technology and language, let them figure it out.

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[fiannaFailMan]

I think a lot of resentment the guy meets here comes from the French-sounding name. I, for one, found it an interesting submission.