Slashdot Mirror
Human Blood For Electrical Power
burner writes "A Japanese research team has developed a fuel cell that runs on blood without using toxic substances, opening the way for use in artificial hearts and other organs. The biological fuel cell uses glucose with a non-toxic substance used to draw electrons from glucose. So where should I have my laptop power port installed?"
Always wondered how the machines used people as power in the Matrix. This explains everything!
Sheesh Apple wants $100.00 for an iBook battery, but that's cheap compared to tapping a vein.
On the other hand, I suppose you can replace your blood for less, and in less time.
Virgins will be ritualistical sacrificed to power the laptops of the Profane!
We're totally bound to see Vampire robots!
-FweE-
Last time I checked, I run on blood, too...
The line between technology and the living is thinning.
MAKE YOUR TIME
Now all we need is a way to darken the sky.
Man, that seems awfully Matrix-y. I suppose it would be possible to power something nontrivial if you had enough people to do it...maybe prisons will no longer have electric bills eventually?
Its interesting, but unless you can use multiple cells or something there is not enough power to run any kind of pump. Afaik one of the major issues with any kind of artificial heart is it kills some of the cells as it pumps. Still this kind of technology is definitely interesting, and who knows what might be possible in the long term.
Didn't slashdot report on this last year? Japanese researchers, check; using blood for energy, check...seems like a dupe, yeah.
;)
In any case, 0.2 milliwatts isn't exactly that much power: the AbiCor artificial heart documentation mentions that it consumes several watts from its external battery pack, a far cry from what this provides.
Though, I can imagine a beowulf cluster of these.
Does this only work for B+?
What about a man's blood?
BENDER: Kill all humans.
human != man.
The ideal way to use this would IMO be to use it thought magnetic induction. That way, the device can be completely subcutaneous. It could be placed on several places in the body. To power a lower power device, you would simply place one or both hands on it (Like you naturally rest your wrists on a laptop) , or grab it, depending on the style of the device. For devices needing more power, induction zones could be placed on the rear upper thighs, simply requiring you to sit on the power receptor. I suppose the area would suffice to transfer a quite significant amount of power, of course depending on the size of your butt. As an added advantage it would provide built-in heating in the aforementioned places.
-Lasse
the matrix?
coupled with the ever growing robtics and A.I. development the matrix is starting to look less and less like fiction......
Oh... and only females can have the power sockets. Yeah, maybe that'll motivate all of us geeks to go and find some girlfriends. We need the power source!
*SMACK*
Oh sorry, I was having a geek wetdream. Reality is a harsh mistress.
"So where should I have my laptop power port installed?""
Wasn't the beans bad enough?
I smell another Castlevania sequel.
I know the poster was joking about the port... but such a concept is interesting, not for its laptop powering abilities... but for health and weight loss potential.
/.
Why go to the gym to work out and burn calories from when you can plug a small cord into your mid section that would enable the device to draw energy directly from your system... and when your blood was running low... fat stores would naturally be tapped.
Result? Losing weight while reading
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
strikes twice.....
>> raw electrons from glucose
Not for hypoglycemics...
I suspect that this technology could be part of a comprehensive weight loss strategy. Eat all you want, and burn the calories by powering gadgets! exciting :-)
Best news ever!
Extra power for my laptop, AND a way to burn of those pesky extra calories from those twinkies !!
Time travel is possible. We are quickly heading for 1984.
which is easier: carrying an extra battery or a pound of apples?
the matrix anyone? This new battery technology Paired with the ever growing technology in robotics and artificial intelligence the sci-fi thriller The Matrix doesnt seem so sci-fi
From reading the article, it seems like the substance used to draw electrons from glucose is a catalyst-type substance, therefore not depleting in the reaction and these could be useful for years without maintenance.
;)
If the substance was a reactant, Ghost in the shell -type high level maintenance would be taking it's first steps.
If the voltage was higher, AIs independent, energy resources low and Asimov's laws of robotics not in use, we could even see some Matrix-style battery usage
I don't really know a whole lot about human biology, but isn't glucose somewhat important to the human body? So when you start adding a whole lot of.... accessories that draw power using this method, couldn't that cause some sort of glucose deficiency? In other words, what are the long term effects of yanking electrons off the glucose in the human body? Would we all eventually gain the ability to throw of shocks of lightning like a Vortigaunt as the body attempts to maintain an electrical balance?
The poll's missing an option now.
"Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Take over the world."
We are just going to place this little...device in you and everything will be all right. Just take a deep breath, relax, and don't worry about what we're doing....
"We're totally bound to see Vampire robots!"
Met the ex-wife, have you?
Could this be an easy way to get rid of all those excess mountain dews??? Burn off the extra calories, power some electonics to boot?
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
I've always had this idea for an MP3 player implant that would run on something like this. There would be a hard drive in-between the radius and ulna and there would be raised buttons on the arm, with a screen somehow built in (I obviously haven't worked out the details. There would have to be a USB or FireWire port, as well. You could have tattoos on the buttons to tell them appart or just memorize them and have it sort of consealed. Wires would run from there up to near the ear. Since it would come from inside the body, little amplification would be needed. Voila! No more worrying about broken or lost MP3 player, headphones, accessories, dead batteries, etc.
I, for one, welcome our robotic overlords.
So if you suffer from Diabetes, too much Glucose in the blood stream not to worry.
Now you can eat your cake and ice cream and this little gizmo will take that extra glucose in the blood stream and make power (albeit small amounts) for you.
The major benefit of this would be to reduce the blood glucose levels without taking medication, the power generation would just be a cherry on top.
Yes to all except the last. Although some people do think that Spontaneous Human Combustion does have something to do with an electrical imbalance in the human body.
All 'where can I hook up my laptop', 'vampire, and 'matrix' jokes aside, this is really an amazing invention. If such a device was implantable, it could self-power a blood glucose monitoring device. Blood glucose too high? Run more blood through the fuel cell and burn up some glucose.
It also kinda reminds me of Soylent Green.
"What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this."
[holds up a Duracell battery]
I would have worked that into something more poetic.
Perhaps
"Which is easier to carry? A spare battery for your apple, or a spare apple for a battery"
Someone update the poll with this latest option!
Remember kids: It's down the street, not across the road.
At that low power, Wouldn't it be just about right for a small tracking device? Implant it in the body and it would be self powered. It could also be used for punishment and "interogation" by attaching the cell to the right pain nerves.
I know this is scary, but how long until this is our "National ID Card."
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
I'd like to see them take out the human and turn this into food-powered electronics. Then me shoving cheese in the floppy drive when I was a baby wouldn't have seemed so wrong!
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
they'll be actual blood-suckers.
... linked "scientific" article having little detail and no indication of peer review. This type of short article/press release almost always has the hint of a stench that someone is self-promoting.
I'm surprised with all the geeks in the house, nobody has referred to Star Treck's Borg as human/machine hybrid.
More seriously, as we continue to advance in the fields of molecular engineering/nano technology, the line between machine and biology blurs. Now we have a method for onbtaining energy directly from the blood stream.
The article doesn't say too much about the fuel cell except it is the size of a small coin. I wonder what the fuel cell is made of--anyone know any background on this research?
You probably didn't read that recent exploding iPod story
making blood
making ions
runs computer
In the late sixties, early seventies, there was a dutch activist by the name of Roel van Duijn, who wrote a play on the subject: nuclear plants powered by human blood. It seems he was right all along.
Paai
So where should I have my laptop power port installed?
IN YOUR ANUS, FAGGOT.
in your anus, faggot.
in your anus, faggot.
in your anus, faggot.
Glucose!
Seriously though, did I call it or what?
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
and the guy next to me stops working on his laptop and starts looking at me weird, I'm gonna freak.
It takes just a moment and an action to destroy. It takes some time and thought to create.
Then again, that suggestion is useless in Slashdot
Pictochat Art!!!
Unfortunately, unless you're supposed to give yourself transfusions, it's probably more heavily regulated than lead-acid...
Human blood is regulated by the FDA. In processed, donated, blood bag form it's a medical product with a whole document about its proper uses as such.
Between its ability to host disease and decompose.. not to mention the animal rights or human squeamishness to overcome, I don't see it as a reasonable power source in the near future.
Human blood has lots of better uses.. ya know, saving lives. And the Red Cross has enough of a problem keeping up with the demand for that.
The Bela Lugosi Power Source Company has 9 Plans that are completely spacing out.
And how did the japaneese came upon this traditional romanian technology?
What did the WIPO do !!!
Isn't this a patented business method ? getting power out of sucking poor peoples blood ?
I smell a scandal, or maybe garlic ?
have to be quick on this one, I knew the matrix comments would be used up by now... Well hey, now there is profit in cannibalism, you get your food and your fuel in one neat package. It's like those stop & shops with the gas station in the parking lot.
-jÆ Nana korobi ya oki
You can worry about that when laptops that consume only 2 milliwatts come around.
Did anyone else read this and immediately think low power output cyberware?
A mini version of this, and finally, something to power my tiny LED implant. How long before people start going to piercing shops to put in safe-sealed gizmos?
Thinkgeek, inside?
they had all the power they'd need....
Nicaraguans, that is.
Do I have enough blood to boot Longhorn, or should I wait for the Service Pack?
Looks like slaughterhouses could make a killing (pun not intended) out of this.
Please tell me if you find such anime!
Everyone should just buy a hummer.
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
You MANIACS! You blew it up! DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO...
Oh, wait a minute. Wrong movie. Sorry.
This is very good. The Matrix was breakthru scifi, but this premise would have relieved the move of a rather dubious premise, using humans for their body heat.
As has been pointed out, cows would have been the better choice.
This is a very interseting development. But 0.2 mW is not nearly enough to power an artificial heart. Does anyone have an idea how much power a heart needs to keep someone alive and happy? I think you need quite a lot of these coin-sized fuel cells for that...
-- Cheers!
Let's see if I can make a rough estimate, while rounding every number in sight:
/. editor mixing his own imagination with what is in the article.
- 5liter of blood
- to pump, say 40mm Hg=500mm H2o of overpressure is needed(diff between upper and lower pressure). I recall numbers like 120 over 80 when they measure your blood pressure.
- 50 beats per minute. if the heart is a big fist, say it pumps like 100ml per beat.
so 5liter per minute.
So say the heart pumps 5l blood per minute 50 cm higher up.
0.5m*5kg*(10m/s2)/(50 seconds)=0.5W
Now, when doing a big effort, i think beat volume can double(from memory), and speed can go *3(180), that'sa factor of 6. Blood pressure goes up a lot too, to 160Hg, but i don't know the difference between upper and lower pressure. Make that a factor 10 in all between hard work and rest.
So the heart produces 0.5 to 5 W. About.
Conclusion: at the moment, the idea of powering artificial hearts is just the
It be possible one day, I suppose.
Well now I really wonder if that wild estimate was any good, or did it just hit a good number because the mistakes cancelled out... Anyone?
In addition, the power leveraged gets very low compared to a process where oxygen is involved, something on the scale of 5 %. Running a heart in that way, combined with the possibility that the body may spend more energy than first developed to destroy the side products, is not a very nice scenario. For sensors and the like, this doesn't matter. For a serious power-drawing implant, or to lose weight, this is a problem. You don't want to force the liver to process those amounts continously, which may be the effect, depending on what really happens to the glucose.
Can the Strogg invasion be far?
Beowulf clusters just don't cut it anymore.
mutant self-assembling blood-thirsty robot overlords, and would like to remind them that, as a reliable battery, i'd be quite happy to wear a couple realdolls here and there, patch-wise, yo ..
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
The first script versions of Matrix did actually have the people being used as processing units but it was decided that altough it is a cool idea, it is too technical for the general public so they made the "power source"-version instead.
0.2 milliwatts isn't exactly that much power:
Are you kidding? That's 200,000 nanowatts, enough for 2,000 nanobulbs!
paintball
Note: I'm not saying that the device would lower glucose levels by consuming glucose, but since it is powered by sugar, the current should be proportional to the amount of sugar. If blood sugar is high, the implant's signal is high, and the pump delivers more insulin. No real logic required. That's why it's such a good fit. And they say so in the article:
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
I can see the commercials now... The new Honda Vamp...The new Ford SUV: D.R. Acula...or(my favorite) the new Scion Suks.
"I'm in it to win it, and no limit is my home." - Snoop Dog c/o PvP Online (July 12th, 2006)
...pull firmly on string"
Babies have a certain type of fat cell whose sole purpose is to be "inefficient". It burns fat (instead of sugar) in order to keep their small bodies warm.
Exercise is still important for a variety of reasons. Still, I can imagine an implant in ten to twenty years whose sole purpose is to burn off unneeded blood sugars.
imply that this bio-fuel cell is different than its predecessors because it uses non-toxic materials.
Also, the older article, http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
Back to the topic, there's still plenty to think about. It burns glucose, so diabetics will have a new way to burn off excess body sugar. Now, since we've gotten this far, how about making one that burns fat?
Can't you just picture this? The stereotypical (and dead-acurate-correct) lard-assed American, squeezing his tremendous bulk into his Ford Expectorant, babbling into two cell phones at once while he tries to steer with his feet, fairly coming with delight at the thought of the starving countries his corporate portfolio has condemned to death this morning, wheezing his approval as the smog from his gas-guzzling monstrosity wrecks the planet's climate. Sorry, lardo, we don't sell gas any more. What do we do instead? Thought you'd never ask. And at least now, you have a *really* *good* reason to keep sucking down those Star-chucks double lattes! We have the ultimate diet for you, too, ladies! Eat as much as you physically can, then plug in at the "gym" and sell the juice back to the electric company!
Me, I can't wait until they find a way to use the whole human body, crackling bones and all. Irritating lusers can meet my new case mod, "Spike", with the clanking, thrashing metal jaws...
Slashdot. If you can't get the first punchline, get the lowest!
The MATRIX!
Sell your sleep for power... anyone interested?
Please roll up your sleave...
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. - HST
I was just looking for a power outlet! ALso, I wonder what they will do with those Tin foil Hats. I smell WIFI.
SO... vampires are really machines that need to recharge themselves?
So how much essence is an artificial heart going to take? :) And how long until I can get a datajack, wired reflexes... a cranial deck might not be a bad idea either.
...is bleeding. Anyone have a bandage?
ok, we got enough issues with people not 'donating' blood to save other people. what are the chances that people will donate blood to power their computer? when did powering a computer became more important that a person's life?
Lizard "Never let them set limits on your mind!"
Perhaps Honda will use it with their Asimo design to develop a vampire robot! Then they can sell it to Toho and have godzilla fight it.
I'm only half kidding with this.
What if this power supply was connected to nothing but a resistor on a heat sink? Could this artificially raise my metabolic rate? Could simply removing glucose from the blood stream lead to weight loss?
Wow, all those piercings can now have little LED's or better yey LED Lasers.
Think of the body art that could be done.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
The CIA is going to be all over this. Now their flying spy insects can be blood-powered and not have to use an electrical power source to re-charge. CIA mosquito spy-bugs. Great. And then we'll have another vector for spreading disease. Oh, wait, maybe these things don't really exist. Give it time.
Maybe this can be used to consume excess glucose powering your latest digital gadgets or maybe it can be used as a weight loss catalyst.
Or both.
I have a friend who is diabetic and needs to prick blood 4-8 times a day to monitor oneself. It would be nice automate this. I can think of a host of other monitors that would helpful too. Perhaps we can lessen the danger of artificial energy sources int he the body with their danagerous metalic salts or radioactive specks or failures.
That would be quite a trick, given that urea has two nitrogen atoms in it, and glucose has none. Unless you think this machine can transmute elements, I think the reaction would be more likely to develop CO2 and water.
Sean
There is no spoon...
Lousy facepalm.
This technology is a cruel bane upon the Land and must be given no quarter.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
Install Debian
So that cheezy Power Rangers rippoff wasn't so :S
far fetched after all? But even the Vanpires went after other cars, not humans, so this scares me!.
the market for ion drinks will grow significantly in the near future!
Japan- self powered penis enlarging pump ...
USA- plug in a your TeeVee and couch potato can lose weight
South Korea- self powered warming mittens and socks
North Korea- (see Africa)
Most countries in Africa- No fat no market
India- Roti and Gee power software revolution
England- Street corner dentisty revolution as portable drill is powered by patients
Germany- Tourists lose weight while watching porn on the beach via self powered DVD players. Lower weight Germans are able to build taller pyramids but children are not as frieghtened owing to the reduced mass
Poland- where do I plug this Midi Acordian in.
France- dumping ground for older non-waterproof connectors
Italy- see France
This could enable us to implant sensors inside our body with out the need to power them externaly. Another possibility is to use memory and processor implants to increase our capabilities. Or, who knows, maybe, with more efficiency, we could have receptors feeding all kind of sensations in our cortex. Maybe in the future we will live a in a virtual enhanced world... All we need is to learn how our brain works!
...was right all along!
Come on, they have a hard enough time stifling dupes from last WEEK. So they reported on something twice in over a year's span, cut them some slack!
When Morpheus said they believe the Matrix uses people as a power source for the machines, I thought "Lisa! In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!", but on their web site I found a more coherant explanation, written by Neil Gaiman.
Unfortunatly, they discarded the better writer's explanation and went ahead with their sillyness in the sequels. But you can still read the short story (it's on the first DVD, too).
You can't take the sky from me...
Can't ... stay ... quiet ....
in your ass, perhaps?
...towards biomechanics or techno-organics, whatever you wish to call it. We humans, and all the rest of the fauna, and also the flora, run on chemical energy. The human body puts out a tremendous amount of waste energy, that were it to be absorbed with anything like 100% efficiency would power all the devices you want to carry around in your Internet-on-the-go lifestyle and then some.
Nanotechnology doesn't necessarily have to be about nanomachines built with cutesy little atoms lined up for show-and-tell with the press like certain STM owners have done, although what we learn from that is important. The greatest piece of nanotech in the near future for biological life forms is to understand how we work at the molecular level and make that more efficient where we can, and repair what gets broke, and so forth.
Over time, we'll eventually learn how to stop doing gross mechanical construction and start growing our buildings, our transportation, our entire infrastructure. We will literally be able to grow entire shopping malls, office and apartment buildings, and even spaceships (ala Lexx to a point, sans feeding it human flesh).
We'll grow things that feed on sunlight and other ambient energy as well as chemicals in the environment, just like plants do. They'll create what energy we need, things will be largely self-repairing, and they'll also use our trash and sewage output for consumables.
This is just one of the steps to a better future where high-tech and environmental harmony finally join their paths together.
Of course, The Matrix does point out how much we are wasting with the present penal system. If we could feed perfect synthetic existances to inmates and harness their bodies' energy output, we'd end prison riots and overcrowding, they'd be happier than they ever were in the real world with their behavioral problems and dealing with society and others, and we'd be needing far less prisons and guards. We simply put them into the power plant for the term of their sentence. Maybe even repair their minds while they're inside and retard their aging and return productive members of society at the end of their sentence. Humane, environmentally sound, productive, this could work.
I know what some will say. I am not saying government is perfect and there won't be miscarriages of justice at times. But how is letting them rot and suffer in a cell, their pathologies getting worse, at massive taxpayer expense better? If we find them innocent later on, they at least didn't suffer while inside, they didn't get a lot older sitting around, and they come out unscathed. Or we can find them innocent after we already executed them.
Rambling I know, but there's all sorts of good things that can come from these interfaces between organic and inorganic science. It doesn't have to be some horrible sci-fi/fantasy/horror movie result. The choice is still up to us. I mean "us" as in "humans".
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
Now all we need is a way to darken the sky.
Am I the only one that was disapointed that they acted as if humans were less dependant on solar energy (hello, plants!) than machines (fossil fuels, nuclear energy, etc)?
And further disapointed when in the Animatrix they took "scorched the sky" to the absurd by having it be be a set of planes releasing black smoke instead of the nuclear winter it could so simply and logically have been?
You can't take the sky from me...
"Bend over. I'll show you ..."
I'm not falling for that this time.
If I ever hear someone's laptop saying "Feed me Seymour!", I am so running.
I wonder if they'll ever get artificial blood so close to human blood that they'll be able to power these things with it. Will the day come when advertisers sell electronics saying "artificial blood not included"?
What are you doing now, you lazy drunken obscene unsayable son of an unnameable gipsy obscenity?
What they should do is invent a power supply that runs on piss and shit. This way, you won't have to go to the bathroom anymore. The power could be used to run all kinds of body peripherals, such as mechanical muscles that will allow you to lift something 5,000 times your weight, or run 100 miles at 25 miles per hour without your heart rate going above 55 beats a minute, or brain implants that allow you to make complex computations that would normally take number-crunching software, in your head. Or better yet, imaging technology that can superimpose things on top of your vision, so that you can view a digitized copy of a textbook or a crib sheet during a test in school, or for other uses like that, or cameras built in to the eyes, so that if you see a hot chick you can record the image for later use, or to email to a friend. Also, excess power could be stored in batteries, for use during times when the requisite materials are not available to the power supply.
I wonder if this fuel cell would run entirely on sugar water? If so couldnt you scale it up to a large scale power plant and run it with sugar water? Then again I don't know if the net output would exceed the electricity needed to run the pumps/harvest cane and whatnot? Interesting stuff, none the less.
If you pay your taxes you support terrorism!
You are going to have to eat alot of Twinkies on your way to work.
probably cause when you hold up a Duracell battery, everyone knows what it is. try that with a processor, even an Intel one.
I didn't mind that in that sense, since Morpheus flat out tells Neo he doesn't really know what the hell is going on, the coppertop jokes were in line with what the Zion people believed, it was part of their post-apocalytic ignorance.
But it doesn't make sense when you think about it, and they had a better explanation (from an agent of the matrix, who DOES know what's going on, unlike the free humans) on their web site when the movie came out... it's even on the DVD's computer-accessible extras, but they decided to ignore it and roll with the power supply explanation, and, well, that was just one of the many ways in which the sequels sucked.
You can't take the sky from me...
Stikitinyerear.
I really don't want to have to give blood to power my portable devices.