An Origami Inspired Bacteria-Powered Battery

jan_jes writes: Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding created by Akira Yoshizawa, which can be used to create beautiful birds, frogs and other small sculptures. Last year a team of engineers from MIT and Harvard has developed an origami flat-pack robot (YouTube video) which can fold itself and crawl away without any human intervention. But now a Binghamton University engineer says this technique can be applied to building batteries, too. The battery generates power from microbial respiration, delivering enough energy to run a paper-based biosensor with nothing more than a drop of bacteria-containing liquid. This method should be especially useful to anyone working in remote areas with limited resources. The total cost of this potentially game-changing device is "five cents."

Comments

Five cents?

[ArcadeMan]

The total cost of this potentially game-changing device is "Five cents".

Don't worry, the legal and the marketing departments will have that fixed very soon.

Re:Five cents?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not think that this will change anything. Those remote areas that are described will often have environmental conditions associated with them. I suspect the typical temperature swings that such an area will see across a single year will be enough to kill the bacteria.

You also have to worry about food for the bacteria and the "transforming principle" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffith's_experiment) and other adaptation of the bacteria over time. It would be bad if the proposed biosensor becomes a substrate for some new disease.

An Improperly-Hyphenated Title

[sexconker]

An Origami Inspired Bacteria-Powered Battery

Which origami, specifically, inspired "Bacteria Powered Battery"?
Who (or what) is referred to by the proper noun "Bacteria Powered Battery"?

Re:An Improperly-Hyphenated Title

[Anonymous Coward]

An Origami-Inspired Bacteria-Powered Battery

Is the correct hyphenation for this otherwise perfectly cromulent sentence fragment.

Maybe "Engineer Invents an Origami-Inspired Bacteria-Powered Battery"

Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[frovingslosh]

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding created by Akira Yoshizawa

I find it extremely hard to believe that Akira Yoshizawa, born in 1911, invented Origami. Oh sure, he apparently did a lot of Origami, as did others. But to claim he created the concept is a pretty bold claim.

Re:Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

Akira was literally the first person on earth to fold paper, you ignorant shit.

Re:Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[sims 2]

is those time travelers making a mess of things again

Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[frovingslosh]

I clearly remember Al Gore claiming to have invented Origami.

Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

Except Al Gore never actually said that. Dumbass.

I guess TECHNICALLY he did not say he INVENTED the internet, he did say "I took the initiative in CREATING the internet".

Citation: https://youtu.be/BnFJ8cHAlco?t=50s

Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect that Akira Yoshizawa invented Al Gore.

(Haha, paper/wood. You'll get it while you're driving home.)

Re:Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the article linked to doesn't say he invented it:

"As part of his duties, he was responsible for teaching new employees basic geometry. He decided to use origami, which he had learned as a child, as a teaching tool to make these lessons easier to understand."

Re:Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding created by Akira Yoshizawa

I find it extremely hard to believe that Akira Yoshizawa, born in 1911, invented Origami. Oh sure, he apparently did a lot of Origami, as did others. But to claim he created the concept is a pretty bold claim.

Indeed. He was innovative, and apparently highly influential in its revival, recording and popularisation - but he can hardly be said to have invented it.

Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I doubt Akira Yoshizawa himself ever actually said he invented origami, so the analogy is actually quite accurate.

Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Triklyn]

http://internethalloffame.org/...

i wish all our politicians were as dishonest as gore.

Re: Akira Yoshizawa meet Al Gore

[Anonymous Coward]

And don't blame God for the world! HE never claimed HE invented the world. HE just took initiative in creating it.

I got zeroth post on this one

[Theovon]

Because I work at SUNY Binghamton and therefore saw the original article before it got slashdotted. :)

False Advertising

[Livius]

The alleged "origami flat-pack robot" had components that weren't paper.

History of origami

[__roo]

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding created by Akira Yoshizawa, which can be used to create beautiful birds, frogs and other small sculptures.

According to that page, Akira Yoshizawa was born in 1911. Origami dates back to at least 1797, when the first known origami book was published (see the history of Origami).

Re:History of origami

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, just yesterday SN ran this news story that seems to allow that:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/06/10/0938245

What kind of bacteria?

[viperidaenz]

Does this have anything to do with the recent "oops" involving anthrax?

I don't want anthrax powered bio-sensors.

Expensive

[viperidaenz]

Cost of bacteria battery: $0.05
Cost of 100 AG13 cells from China: $4.99 or $0.0499 each

http://www.aliexpress.com/item...

There are probably cheaper ones out there.

CR2032's pack a decent amount of power for $0.13c

Re:Expensive

[someone1234]

Did you add the biosensor cost?
0.05 was the total cost of the device, the bacteria battery is just part of it.

Remote areas means

[Anonymous Coward]

... anyone working in remote areas with limited resources ...

Limited resources means, to me, unable to keep bateria alive and contained, or keep treated paper clean and undamaged.

Paper folding != Akira Yoshizawa

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot's articles are getting more and more ridiculous!!

For example, the claim

Origami is the created by Akira Yoshizawa

is totally false

Paper was created thousands of years ago before Yoshizawa's parents copulated, and for thousands of years people from many cultures, mostly from East Asia, had been folding papers into many kinds of shapes, styles, and for all kinds of uses

To credit Mr. Yoshizawa for Origami is way beyond ridiculous, it is utterly irresponsible and shameless!

And the slashdot editors should be push to the street and shot for their utter stupidity in letting this kind of stupid shit to pass through

Well, that makes sense,

[sabbede]

after all, we generate power from microbial respiration! We just call them mitochondria.

Have mine for free

[RuffMasterD]

I must be covered in $50 worth of bacteria right now, and I have more where that came from.