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Aquarium Uses Eel Powered Christmas Lights
A Japanese aquarium is using the greenest energy possible to power the lights on its Christmas tree, an electric eel. From the article: "Each time the eel moves, two aluminum panels gather enough electricity to light up the 2-meter (6 ft 6 in) tall tree, decked out in white, in glowing intermittent flashes."
I want my Eel powered batteries now.
Some video love: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoChannel=4&videoId=72584
Solar is the greenest energy available, hands down. Although I doubt using the sun to provide light would interest many people.
"Wow, an eel-powered christmas tree!"
"You think that's cool, imagine this: A giant ball of hydrogen millions of degrees in temperature constantly undergoing fusion sustains all life on Earth from 93 million miles away! And it will last for billions of years, at almost no cost! Although unfortunately output is subject to seasonal fluctuations."
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
Of course, it is not practical. Sometimes practicality needs to be shoved out of the way because impractical is half the fun. In this case it's the idea and the wonder of whether or not it could be done. They've shown it can be done regardless of how practical it may be. I, for one, rejoice in this sort of tinkering and proof.
Can these electric eels power it too?
Piezoelectric Eels for Energy Harvesting in the Ocean.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they "draining power" from the eel through induction, not unlike the way you can steel power from high-voltage power lines? That power has to come from somewhere. Does the eel have to speed up it's metabolism to compensate?
Regards,
PETA
... so if the eel is in sight of the tree, and is photophobic (or -philic), can one set up an oscillation in which eel movement causes light which causes more movement, making the tree lights flash at a substantially constant rate?
No-eel, No-eel, No-eel, Noooo-eeeeeel!
Born is the light powered by my eel.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
3 year old video of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9wktSQdyaE
They are doing the same thing at an aquarium here in Finland. The linked article is only in Finnish but there you have it: http://www.mtv3.fi/kampanja/helmi/vapaalla/lemmikit/minun_lemmikkini/1221843.html
I'm sure PETA is going to have a cow. You know they're not just about EATING animals. Ethical Treatment and all!!! Is it ETHICAL to STEAL energy from an eel without asking it first?!
Hell, they're not happy you even HAVE an eel. Much less are forcing it to move around so you can harvest it's energy.
I can see a bunch of naked protesters between aluminum panels trying to power lightbulbs now.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
I think I remember seeing this done at the Vancouver Aquarium about forty years ago. They used small neon lamps, which could be coupled directly to the tank voltage without burning out. It was an elegant approach, requiring few components. Neon lamps work equally well with AC or DC. The eel isn't being stimulated to discharge lethal amounts of electricity, but even small muscle movements will occasionally produce enough voltage to make the lamps flicker.
I've wondered how well LED lamps could be adapted for this purpose. It's too bad that the article is so short on details. LEDs operate at around 2 or 3 volts. You could arrange a hundred of them in series, I suppose. Also, unlike 40 years ago, voltage regulators are widely available as inexpensive ICs. If you powered them from the eel, they could in turn drive the LEDs. There is then no requirement to divide a high voltage among a large number of LEDs. A few would do just as well. With capacitors for current storage, it might even be possible to run the LEDs continuously.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
I've had exotic fish (and reptiles, etc). They all require specific environments maintained at the right temperature. The water requires filtration. Often they require special lighting. You have to feed them. None of that stuff comes for free. I don't think you can make a closed energy loop out of an eel.
The problem is getting the eel to move.
Put the eel back in the river or ocean. Shut down the aquarium. Turn off the lights. That would be green. This isn't.
My pet eel won't do this. He objects because he's Jewish.
Let me know when they achieve an output sufficient to power something larger, like a hovercraft. I would certainly make use of it there.
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
My aquarium is full of eels!
Of course there was no video available in TFA, so I went and searched for it.
Here's a 2007 version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9wktSQdyaE
This is not the sig you're looking for.
I want my eel powered hovercraft.
If they cross genetics from a eel to a jellyfish, you've got a water-bound Metroid. Leave it up to the Japanese to pull this one off.
Life is not for the lazy.
Turn off the internet while they're at it.
How much power does it take to keep an eel alive in a tank 24/7 so that visitors can see some lights flicker a few hours a day?
And if the notoriety attracts more visitors, don't they just end up causing more resources to be used in the building?
I bet this thing has a carbon footprint like a Hummer.
atleast HIS internet
Yes... the ULTIMATE way to teach children, especially those that live in a city like Tokyo, a proper appreciation of nature is to hide it away from them so they cannot see it. Close the zoos, the aquariums, and anything else that might actually use energy and resources in their quest to preserve and display animals and environments that 95% of us will never be able to witness in the wild. If those spoiled little brats want to observe a little bit of nature while in their high-tech urban environment, they can read a book or something.
Oh, wait, no books either... that uses trees. Snot-nosed punks don't need to see animals anyway!
And make sure should you ever choose to release an animal from an aquarium into the wild, you do it in waters they're not native to so they can properly destroy the ecosystem like the Northern Snakeheads and Asian Carp are doing in American rivers.
What if you have an aquarium with two eels, then you insert a pane of circus glass between them so they alway see the other as being bigger or smaller or opposite gender as whoever looks through the glass. Now, how about we harness the energy of inequality between the two? It'll be like an organic car battery, or how IRS strawmans the people into becoming "taxpayers", or what religion does to destroy the relation between man and woman! All we'll get is some Split-Positive free energy, we need to try it!
Go sit in the dark and stop eating. Die. Wait for the maggots to consume your body. That would be greener still.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
My name is Morpheus, I hold in my hands a Red pill and a blue pill.....