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Scientists Harvest Nano-Power From Hamsters

Posted by timothy on from the diminishing-returns dept.

Al writes "Researchers at Georgia Tech have come up with the ideal way to test a new peizo-electric device that efficiently harvests power from bio-movement — attaching it to a hamster. The device contains a series of zinc-oxide nanowires mounted on top of a flexible plastic surface. As the plastic bends, the wires generate around a nanowatt of power. The Georgia Tech team, led by Zhong Lin Wang, wanted to show that their device could produce power from irregular movements so they attached it to a tiny hamster jacket. They also tried attaching it to a volunteer's finger. Here's a video of the hamster wearing his piezo-power outfit."

71 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Uh oh... by Jaysyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope no one tells Minsc!

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
    1. Re:Uh oh... by CannonballHead · · Score: 1

      awww... I miss BG :(

    2. Re:Uh oh... by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      Well go play it. It's not like it won't run on WINE. Even better, play BG1 in the BG2 Engine.

      http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=143&Itemid=98

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    3. Re:Uh oh... by duckInferno · · Score: 1

      Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!

      --
      Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
    4. Re:Uh oh... by duckInferno · · Score: 1

      Haha, I just realised I still have a Minsc quote in my age-old sig.

      --
      Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
    5. Re:Uh oh... by Bemopolis · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hell, I just hope no one tells Richard Gere.

      --
      "I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
    6. Re:Uh oh... by Jurily · · Score: 2, Funny

      Go for the eyes, Boo!

  2. Finally by atomicthumbs · · Score: 1

    Someday soon we'll be able to power our computers with armies of hamsters!

    --
    http://pinopsida.com
    1. Re:Finally by snowraver1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      First you would need about 15 billion hamsters for a low power notebook. Your desktop/monitor would likely take around 400billion hamsters (.4 terahamsters) or assuming an average mass of 100g, 40 million metric tons of hamsters.

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      Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. This comment may not be copied in any way including, but not limited to caching.
    2. Re:Finally by mr_mischief · · Score: 4, Funny

      It wouldn't take nearly so many if you just burned the hamsters as fuel, but then you'd be better off to just burn the pellets instead of feeding the hamsters.

    3. Re:Finally by CaptainPatent · · Score: 1

      We finally can put Lemmiwinks back to work!

      --
      Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
    4. Re:Finally by JK_the_Slacker · · Score: 1

      Pellets don't reproduce like exploits in Microsoft software, though.

      --
      I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.
    5. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      This raises a very important question.

      How many terahamsters are in one burning library of congress per second?

      And is there a non-SI unit for power yet? If not, I nominate terahamsters.

    6. Re:Finally by aliquis · · Score: 1

      No-one haven't written "imagine a beowulf cluster of nanopowergeneratingjacketwearing hamsters"?

    7. Re:Finally by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

      Will the notebook do 0.5 terahamsters past light speed?

    8. Re:Finally by Petrushka · · Score: 1

      Well, I guess there are now forty-three ways to generate power from a hamster.

      I'm kind of hoping that this research is in reference to that old list ... my favourite was always number 41.

    9. Re:Finally by jallen02 · · Score: 1

      One of the genuinely GOOD uses of the meme and what??? no mod points. How far has /. fallen? :>

    10. Re:Finally by wooferhound · · Score: 1

      These people wired a generator to a Hamster Wheel and the hamster makes enough power to light up a nightlight.
      http://www.otherpower.com/hamster.html

      --
      We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
    11. Re:Finally by wooferhound · · Score: 1

      and . . .
      http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/27/0536212

      --
      We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
    12. Re:Finally by Gabrill · · Score: 1

      Yes, but you could _eat_ the hamster meat, and burn the carcass, ending up with a tasty positive!

      --
      Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
    13. Re:Finally by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

      We shall start by using this new system as a way to gauge how much power is
      needed for something...4 terahamsters for this, 2 terahamsters for that....I LIKE IT!

    14. Re:Finally by DrSkwid · · Score: 1

      I don't remember posting this. Well done !

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  3. Obligatory.. by Victor_0x53h · · Score: 2, Funny

    I for one welcome our nano-power generating hamster overlords..

    1. Re:Obligatory.. by Blue+Stone · · Score: 1

      Isn't this how Planet of the Apes began?

      --
      Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  4. Great, but.. by StikyPad · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wouldn't it have been more efficient to attach a generator to the wheel?

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    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    1. Re:Great, but.. by snowraver1 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps. It's well known that the most efficient way to get power from a hamster is to use them as a fuel source for a conventional boiler/turbine combo.

      --
      Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. This comment may not be copied in any way including, but not limited to caching.
    2. Re:Great, but.. by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Way to miss the point.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. Perhaps a tiny bowler hat too? by niro5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am most intrigued by the idea of hamsters wearing jackets.

    1. Re:Perhaps a tiny bowler hat too? by Cornwallis · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was taught it *takes* almost 1000 hamsters to make a jacket.

    2. Re:Perhaps a tiny bowler hat too? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Would you settle for a three piece suit?
      http://www.amazing-planet.net/slike/sidekick/penfold.JPG

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  6. Works with popcorn? by ND4SPDR · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does it work even if he's just eating popcorn on a piano? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfqNXADl3kU

  7. Weird Ed disapproves! by eddy · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...I'm pretty sure...

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  8. Surprised by DavidR1991 · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised it has taken this long for a technology like this to come around. Not the hamster part, but the generation of electricity via small/random body movements. Considering we've had self-winding/kinetic watches for a while, I'm surprised this took so long to materialise.

  9. How many hamsters to power a lightbulb? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So you need 100 billion hamsters to power a 100 Watt lightbulb.

    Fantastic achievement. NEXT!

    1. Re:How many hamsters to power a lightbulb? by Weedlekin · · Score: 1

      With figures like those, a renewable power system based on this particular hamster technology would lead to a serious shortage of hamsters, so this could well be a good time to invest in both hamster futures, and buy shares in companies that offer serious hamster alternatives for those whose needs will no longer be served by a visit to a pet store.

      Here's a link to a company whose shares might be about to skyrocket if this technology is adopted by (for example) the Chinese government. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but I do have several of their fine products:

      http://www.realhamster.com/

      --
      I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
  10. I was expecting a hamster wheel... by Zakabog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was expecting a hamster wheel being used as a generator and thought "Really? That's something new?"

    This technology seems a lot more useful as long as they can get it to scale up nicely. It'd be nice to be able to charge a cell phone from the clothing you wear.

    1. Re:I was expecting a hamster wheel... by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but what happens when you get caught out in the rain in this stuff?

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    2. Re:I was expecting a hamster wheel... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      That's an industrial problem, and solvable.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:I was expecting a hamster wheel... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Embedded it in your portable device.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    4. Re:I was expecting a hamster wheel... by Garridan · · Score: 1

      Then you harvest some nanopower from the raindrops falling onto your jacket.

    5. Re:I was expecting a hamster wheel... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      I was expecting a hamster wheel being used as a generator and thought "Really? That's something new?"

      This technology seems a lot more useful as long as they can get it to scale up nicely. It'd be nice to be able to charge a cell phone from the clothing you wear.

      Plus, if you're the kind of person who likes to give your hamsters a better home by making those big tube fortresses, then your hamster will be generating power all the time rather than the relatively lesser amount of time they'd be on the hamster wheel.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  11. Hamster by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Isn't it easier to just strap a traditional generator onto the hamster wheel?

    1. Re:Hamster by tilandal · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sure if you plan on powering your MP3 player or phone by walking in a giant wheel.

    2. Re:Hamster by sexconker · · Score: 1

      They don't call it the rat race for nothing.

  12. think about by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Think about how much energy could be harnessed if they just hooked these things up to slashdotters forearms. It's mindboggling!

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:think about by denzacar · · Score: 1

      Wristbands with multi-wire nanogenerators.

      Slashdot alone could probably power a continent or two.

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  13. No....I don't belive it!! It's not possible. by RetroRichie · · Score: 5, Funny

    The hamster generates more bio-electricity than 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTVs of body heat. Combined with a form of piezo-electricity, the humans have found all the energy they would ever need. There are stores...endless pet stores, were hamsters are no longer born. We are grown. For longest time, I wouldn't belive it...and then I saw the fields with my own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead, so they could be fed intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth. What is The Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world, built to keep us under control in order to change a hamster into THIS.

    1. Re:No....I don't belive it!! It's not possible. by zentinal · · Score: 1

      Of course, today, of all days, I do not have mod points. Bravo, RetroRichie. Bravo.

    2. Re:No....I don't belive it!! It's not possible. by Fry-kun · · Score: 1

      LOL
      Bravo, well played! :D

      --
      Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
    3. Re:No....I don't belive it!! It's not possible. by afxgrin · · Score: 1

      This would make a great Southpark episode.

  14. Wierdest /. summary quote evar by idontgno · · Score: 1

    "tiny hamster jacket"

    Seriously, that phrase would almost win a googlewhack except for the actual occurance in /.

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  15. Is this by SnarfQuest · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is this part of the "boxed data center" package? I know they are including power genertators, but I didn't think that it would require massive amounts of hamster food.

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
  16. The future is now! by Garridan · · Score: 1

    This will have a rather fun side-effect: people wearing a piezoelectric jacket, talking on bluetooth cell phones -- talking to themselves, and constantly twitching to produce enough electricity to keep the phone on. Next, we'll hear about new subdermal neck-implanted antennas whose performance is enhanced by moisture. Then, the streets will be full of twitching, drooling businesspeople talking to themselves.

  17. Sweet! by i_am_socket · · Score: 2, Funny

    Business Plan

    1) Build electric vehicle
    2) Get electricity from Hamsters
    3) ...
    4) Profit!

    Greenest car since the Prius!

  18. Thats it. by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 2, Funny

    This time I am going to be an early adopter... Does anyone know where I can get 40 million metric tons of hamsters?

    --
    If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
  19. But only 28 by denzacar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To power a red light LED.

    And that is the basic single-wire nanogenerator.

    1. Scale it up to more nanogenerators so 1 hamster could easily power a red LED laser pointer which would be attached to it's wheel.
    2. Attach a larger nanogenerator jacket to a cat.
    3. Generate endless amounts of energy.
    4. Profit.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:But only 28 by esampson · · Score: 2, Funny

      How many to power the laser on a frickin' shark?

    2. Re:But only 28 by denzacar · · Score: 1

      Too many for any practical use as a weapon system.

      Whales on the other hand...

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    3. Re:But only 28 by InverseParadox · · Score: 1

      ...but tomorrow is Friday...

      --
      -- The Wanderer
  20. The Matrix bots... by fortunato · · Score: 1

    ...will love using this new way of harvesting power.

  21. So much for the Matrix by IgLou · · Score: 1

    The damn machines will be plugging in hamsters into their giant VR world and just kill us off. Oh man, I thought I'd be made redundant by a robot before a hamster!

    --

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  22. No Problem... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

    Start with two. You'll have your 15 billion in anywhere from 6 to 12 months. You may experience living space issues and complaints form the neighbors, however.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  23. I'm paranoid because I'm paranoid by SinGunner · · Score: 1

    This is just the test run for the full scale model that they'll fit inside a straight-jacket that they'll put me in because I'm paranoid that they will do precisely that!

    The outcome of my paranoia is its cause!

  24. wouldn't blood battery be more efficient? by Fry-kun · · Score: 1

    If you put the two contacts of a voltmeter on your tongue, you'll see a small voltage - because you'd have created a battery with the leads and your saliva. Why not just use the hamster's internal fluids to create a battery?

    --
    Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
    1. Re:wouldn't blood battery be more efficient? by Peeteriz · · Score: 1

      Seeing a small voltage != being able to extract that voltage for any significant power.

      Power = voltage * current. Most of such biobatteries have very, very insignificant current ratio.

  25. Could have worked on this by cheechdurden · · Score: 1

    Last year I was offered the choice of working on this project, amongst others, for senior design at Georgia Tech. I chose another bizarre piezoelectric based project instead. I doubt that one will over make it on slashdot. BTW, ZL Wang is the man.

  26. Well... by denzacar · · Score: 1

    Those jackets probably keep hamsters safe while they jog at night.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  27. Re:For humans soon? by Hucko · · Score: 1

    So tell me why is that energy going to waste? More specifically, why haven't you *already* connected your treadmill to an inverter system?

    Thank God I don't do exercise so I don't have to answer difficult questions like that.

    --
    Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
  28. Obligatory by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Think about how much energy could be harnessed if they just hooked these things up to your mom! Now stop pondering how much time I spend "clicking the mouse".

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  29. Watch the video by Shrike82 · · Score: 1

    27 seconds in the hamster throws someone an evil look; probably the sadistic bastard that put him in a jacket and started filming him.

    --
    You can advertise in this sig from as little as £99.99 a month!
  30. feed by jackymiles · · Score: 1

    so think it'll cost more to feed the hamsters or pay for electricity the old way

    --
    A tech working in computer repair