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Staying alive guzzles energy. In order to keep us ticking, our bodies need to burn between 2,000 and 2,500 [kilo]calories per day, which is conveniently enough to power a modestly used smart phone. So if just a fraction of that energy could be siphoned, our bodies could in theory be used to run any number of electronic devices, from medical implants to electronic contact lenses—all without a battery in sight. Recently, researchers have taken important strides toward unlocking this electric potential.
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For instance, the ears of mammals contain a tiny electric voltage called the endocochlear potential (EP). Found inside the cochlea, a spiral-shaped cavity in the inner ear, the EP aids hearing by converting pressure waves into electrical impulses. It’s vanishingly weak—about a tenth of a volt—but still strong enough, in theory, to power hearing aids and other aural implants.
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The potential of piezoelectric materials goes even deeper. They’re also being used to harvest energy from internal organs. Last year, US-based researchers successfully generated electricity from the beating hearts, lungs, and diaphragms of (sedated) cows and sheep, all by attaching an ultra-thin piezoelectric material to the organs. Impressively, the implanted fabric generated about a microwatt of power (one millionth of a watt)—roughly the amount needed to run a cardiac pacemaker.
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Probably the single biggest step toward harnessing the power of our bodies has been the development, in the last few decades, of enzymatic biofuel cells (EFCs)—small, battery-like devices which can generate electricity by breaking down the energy-rich chemicals in bodily fluids…. The technology to create EFCs has existed for more than a decade, but in the past five years, researchers have begun to test them on—and in—living creatures.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday July 22 2015, @03:44PM
Sorry, didn't see your post before sending mine. But you are wrong. We are already in the Matrix, right now we are working on the recursion.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday July 22 2015, @04:17PM
Please don't bring up the Matrix, those could have been so good if they wouldn't have botched the second and third. The bitch is I read an article "fan solutions that make more sense than the original" that if they would have simply adopted it would have fixed most of the problems with 2 and 3. Put simply....they never left the Matrix. Zion, the hovership, all of it was just a construct for the machines to dump "defective units" that refused to take the original program as "too good" so they gave them a crapsack world that they would accept. This would explain why Neo could stop the squids, how the programs were able to get their child "out" of the Matrix (as she would be just another orphan in Zion) and even handwave the stupid battery bit as that would merely be a story given to them by the machines to give them a backstory and reason to continue. Hell for all they would know the sun could be shining on a lovely war free world as they had never left the Matrix they would have no idea what a world outside of it looked like.
All though I think the best one I read was the explanation that covered why there could be so many actors playing James Bond with so many conflicting backstories...there is no James Bond its only a cover identity given to the current top operative to protect his family and friends from his previous life. This one little explanation explains why one James Bond would be a brawler and another a thinker, why one was fun loving and the next dark, even why one would disappear after the death of his wife (Lazenby) and the next being devil may care like nothing happened, its all because its not a person, its a code name.
As for TFA? I can see this for implants like pacemakers but cellphones? It wouldn't make any sense simply because as another poster pointed out a human can crank a handle for a couple minutes and generate more power than one of these things can come up with in a week. With something like a diabetic pump or pacemaker I can see it as its not like the average person is gonna wanna be Tick-Tock of Oz and be wound up with a key on their chest but for portable devices it just wouldn't make any sense. I personally keep my portable devices (phone and vaping mod) charged up just by plugging them into the cigarette lighter when I'm out and about, I sure as hell ain't gonna want to have surgery just so I can charge them as I breathe.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @04:52PM
The second and third? There was only one Matrix movie!
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday July 22 2015, @05:09PM
Obligatory xkcd [xkcd.com]...
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 22 2015, @05:09PM
"I sure as hell ain't gonna want to have surgery just so I can charge them as I breathe." Come on, where's your sense of adventure? It's the latest and greatest thing out there! </sarcasm> I definitely agree with you on the Matrix bit. So many things could have been done with third movie that could have fixed the ending for second. Instead, they just took the third one even farther down the rabbit hole. I think they may have actually found Oz.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"