Scientists Powering Batteries with Soda, Tree Sap

BobB writes "St. Louis University researchers have concocted batteries fueled by almost any kind of sugar, from tree sap to flat soda, and that could be used to power everything from computers to cell phones. Their thinking: If sugar can jack up the human body, why not electronics?"

Comments

Re:Sugar's nasty property #1:

[Walt Dismal]

I, for one, salute our new Aspartame-bearing sugar-free electronics overlords.

-- (reading what I typed. Dear god, just shoot me now.)

Awkward..

[Rob T Firefly]

Their thinking: If sugar can jack up the human body, why not electronics?

A lot of things can "jack up" the human body, a limited amount of which I'd ever want to use as household power sources.

"Sorry mom, I'll have to call you back later, my battery's about to die. I promise I'll call back just as soon as I've shagged my phone.."

Re:Sugar's nasty property #1:

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, am very sick of this retarded meme overlord.

Further research

[lawpoop]

" If sugar can jack up the human body, why not electronics?"

Next up, caffiene for your cell phone, and cocaine for your PDA!

Re:Sugar's nasty property #1:

[AutopsyReport]

I, for one, am very sick of this retarded meme overlord.

I'm right here, you insensitive clod!

My clock runs off a potato.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

That's nothing - my clock runs off a potato. (e.g., http://www.unit5.org/christjs/Potato%20Battery.htm )

Sometimes I wonder if the Slashdot editors are really junior high school drop-outs...

Obligatory Simpsons Reference:

[Anonymous Coward]

In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women...

Re:Sugar's nasty property #1:

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Meme mashup:

1)In Soviet Russia, the naked and petrified Natalie Portman meme overloads your hot Meept! grits and posts Open Source Caveman Ogg first.
2)????
3) Profit

I can see thousands of angry customers....

[pesho]

...trying to charge their batteries with diet coke.

Taking that a step further...

[jense]

What happens when after a few years of sugar consumption our notebooks get diabetes? You thought the finger-prick was a pain...

Re:Sugar's nasty property #1:

[jimstapleton]

Oh, I can see it now...

The birds chirping, dew on the grass, notebooks, PDAs and iPods taking flight...

Re:Stupid.

[vertinox]

fats kick the crap out of carbohydrates with regard to energy density

Creating machines that could "potentially" run off fuel made from dead humans might be a "potentially" bad thing.

Of course to be fair, you never have to run faster than the flesh eating machines... Just faster than anyone else you happen to be with.

Just what need, moody computing

[lawaetf1]

If my laptop reacts to a sugar spike at all like my body does, it'll overclock itself for the morning, the hard drives will ramp up to the next RPM standard and then by afternoon the speed stepping on the CPU will drop to the lowest level, the drive will spin itself down at every possible chance and the screen brightness will be minimal.

Re:Jacked up.

[the_bard17]

So you take the battery out of the device first, place the device a safe distance away from the battery, then refill the battery. After ensuring that there is no spilled liquid on the exterior surface of the battery, reinstall it into the device.

That was simple.

'Course, we're dealing with the same folks who still manage to spill liquid on their laptops, water plants over their (expensive) TVs, etc. On the other hand, there's probably no hope for these folks, so we should be ok with the above.

Re:Nannobots, Finally !!!

[gobbo]

Well, we getting so close to have real nanobots in our bodies.
One of the obstacles is how to power them.
The answer - make them absorb blood shugar!

Woah, slow down there. You've obviously never had a yeast infection...