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Sony Runs Walkman Off Sugar-Based Bio Battery
StonyandCher writes "Sony has created a battery that produces electricity by breaking down sugar. The bio cell, which measures 39 millimeters cubed, delivers 50mW — a world record for such a cell, according to the company. 'In the bio cell sugar-digesting enzymes at the anode extract electrons and hydrogen ions from the glucose. The hydrogen ions pass through a membrane separator to the cathode where they absorb oxygen from the air to produce water as a byproduct. The electrons flow around the circuit outside the device producing the electricity needed to power it.'"
Laptops, cars etc?
One thing that I think would be a problem with "bio"-anything is consistency. What if it gets too hot, too cold, too humid, whatever? Do the biological components start behaving differently? Will the power output stay consistent under extreme vibration, etc?
The bio cell, which measures 39 millimeters cubed, delivers 50mW -- a world record for such a cell, according to the company.
The real question is, how much force does it create when it explodes?
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
I can convert glucose to energy very efficiently, just give me a crank.
\u262D = \u5350
Sweet!
After months an all-sugar diet, your Walkman becomes obese and sluggish, then you need to give it regular insulin injections, etc.
Kevin Smith on Prince
...my body's been doing that for years.
I hate be a bit of a troll on this but Economists are already warning about food-based sources for fuel. Using grains to create ethanol could have a negative impact on the food market by driving up prices - especially for poor countries. Now Sony, in their infinate capatilsitic wisdom, have created a way to power a device, using suger. Nice. So in 15 years down the road, families around the world start starving so I can power my power-hungry laptop with a few pounds of suger, and dump a tonne of ehtanol into my gas guzzling HUMMER to get 10MPG. It's nice to know that my own personal power needs can determine whether or not the worlds poor can feed themselves. It's time to move away from this as an alternative power source because it's the 'right thing to do.'
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
That's all we need: unkillable devices competing with humans for food. That can lull us to sleep or drive us crazy just by playing the same song over and over.
We'll go out not with a bang, or a whimper, but a "shuffle".
--
make install -not war
Someone who follows this field please reply- how are they doing with using these things to run implantable medical devices? Are they on the market, in human testing, in animal testing, in design, still just a glint in a venture capitalist's eye?
I know they're planning to have all sorts of implantable blood-powered sensors that send radio signals out to monitors. So, for one example, a diabetic can have a continuous blood glucose meter implanted in their wrist, which is powered by something like this, and sends wireless signals to a wrist-watch that gives continuous readings of blood glucose, bypassing all the finger-pricking blood tests. And the watch could then store that data and send it to the computer, where they can track it, graph it, correlate it with diet and exercise, recognize trends in the disease, etc. I'm sure there are endless cool potential medical uses. But I've been hearing about this for many years now, and while I'm sure I could Google up how it's going with a few hours of reading, would some knowledgeable Slashdot reader like to just cut to the chase and tell us where things stand?
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
What happened for example in Mexico with tortilla prices http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6319093.stm and the threat to tequila production as well(!!), I wonder about the wisdom of converting our food supply to slake our thirst for energy. I would far better like to see alternative energy products like hydrogen fuel cells and the like rather than turning over arable land to energy production.
These batteries may have the potential to be good, but the impact on people, especially in the third world where food prices are a large obstacle has the potential to be nasty.
Please put your "That's Sweet" jokes under this thread, and be sure to include your home address and the specific way you would like me to kill you.
Sony refers to the sugar powered battery as a "Teenager".
Note: Purchasing teenagers is illegal in every country except Saudia Arabia and Nigeria.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Unfortunately, the American version will run off of high-fructose corn syrup.
also, there's an Obvious Simpsons Reference here which I am too lazy to make.
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
They should try to make a self powered mini bioreactors which consume sugar from blood.
I one day forsee this technology being paired with a highly efficient food processing machine, breaking down foods into their component sugars.
Turning your garbage, old moldy food, etc into your households electricity needs!
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
First you get the sugar, then you get the power, THEN you get the women!
crazy dynamite monkey
If food prices are driven up, many poor countries are in fact going to benefit. With their very cheap labor, they could, at least in theory, produce cheap food and even export it. However, food subsidies in the developed world essentially kills their markets. Not only are they not able to export, they end up importing cheaper, subsidized food.
The Raven
That's Sweet!
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ask for "W"
I wonder if there's potential for medical uses? Like powering pacemakers or other internal electronics, or burning off excess glucose in type II diabetics, or just burning off glucose for weight control
"There are now more overweight people in the world than people who are undernourished..."m ain1962961.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/03/health/
I think this reflects a trend that we're seeing more of lately: technology using materials and processes taken from biology. This shouldn't be too surprising, as biology is optimized for the particular physics and chemistry of our universe.
DNA just wants to be free...
The price of corn went up thanks to all these 'green' autos. Now the price of sugar is going to go up because of personal audio devices!
;)
They need to concentrate on getting power out of byproducts like veggie diesel. Now gimme a walkman with a small diesel engine running a small generator and then I'll be happy. Granted i'll have to stand in one place because it'll be too heavy to carry. And my hands will stink after fueling. At least grease doesn't explode to readily.
Hey, here's a question. Would a Vegan drive a volkswagon that runs off of animal fat grease? What a delimma... it's already dead, and it would be 'green.' What about a car that runs off of roadkill. Ok, this is going to be modd'd offtopic
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Remember: Hydrogen fuel cells are just batteries in effect. They aren't a method for producing power. You have to have hydrogen gas to make them work and that doesn't occur in quantities such that we can just gather it. It must be separated from another compound, water for example. Ok, but that requires energy. Where does that energy come from?
Supposing that the biogenesis theory of fossil fuel production is correct (the classic theory, that says it comes from living things over long periods and as such is not renewable) we are going to run out of it at some point. Unless you think we should all go live in the wilderness without power (in which case I say you first) we need to find alternate energy sources. Biofuels may well be a good one.
Hydrogen isn't a solution by itself. We may start using it as a more efficient way to store and transport power, but to get it we need to get energy from somewhere.
Unless we are going to take the Luddite answer of saying we need to stop using technology that requires power (which will lead to millions, perhaps billions of deaths as we cannot sustain the current population on preindustrial means) then we have to look for alternate power sources. We can't stick our heads in the sand and just whine about problems. Any energy source will come with problems, that's just life. The problems have to be weighed against the benefits.
Also please remember: Biofuels are in their infancy. Maybe we should keep investing and working, see if we can't figure out ways to make it more efficient. Plants are pretty efficient little solar cells, when you get down to it, we just need to work on getting ones that we can then efficiently turn in to other forms of energy.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Ok, but CAN you bring the sugar bags onto the flight? It can be used as a rocket fuel and here; and as an explosive Sugar has a LOT of energy!
So will the US version need to use high fructose corn syrup instead to avoid the crazy sugar industry restrictions?
I'll just point out that the subsidised food actually drives the poor farmers out of business and reduces the amount of land that is then dedicated to farming within the poorest regions. The really nasty problems start when there's a subsequent drought and the remaining productive land doesn't produce enough food to feed the population. The result is famine, starvation, death and a greater need for aid.
Another problem appears when you have thousands of disaffected unemployed ex farmers just sitting around. Ideal supply of soldiers for anyone who decides they want to rebel against their desperate situation. Which obviously makes everything an order of magnitude worse. It's no coincidence that areas which receive lots of aid are areas which have problems with ongoing conflicts. It's a self reinforcing cycle.
Really, food subsidies are a form of economic warfare which attacks the poorest, most wretched, most defenceless people on the planet...
EU and US farmers are directly the cause of millions of deaths in the 3rd world.
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