2 replies to this topic

[Lazarus Long]

This one from yesterday's Wired Magazine is too good to ignore. I have felt for some time that there are a variety of ways to power most of the basic portable arrays from body heat, and even biomechanical conversion through biomimetic metals, and photosynthetic suits but this definitely goes a step further.

http://image73.eguar...ent18897-0.html
Power from blood could lead to 'human batteries'
August 4 2003

A device that produces electricity from blood could be used to turn people into "human batteries".

Researchers in Japan are developing a method of drawing power from blood glucose, mimicking the way the body generates energy from food.

Theoretically, it could allow a person to pump out 100 watts - enough to illuminate a light bulb.

But that would entail converting all the food eaten by the individual into electricity. In practice, less power would be generated since food is needed by the body.

However the scientists say the "bio-nano" generator could be used to run devices embedded in the body, or sugar-fed robots.

The team at electronics giant Panasonic's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory near Kyoto has so far only managed to produce very low power levels.

But the scientists ultimately expect to gain much greater performance from the device.

The battery is based on an enzyme capable of stripping glucose of its electrons, The Engineer magazine reported.

Dr Kazuo Eda, heading the research, said: "It is like the metabolism of food. Human bodies can process glucose and obtain energy. When glucose is oxidised, electrons can be obtained."

He believed bio-nano fuel cells were the next step for researchers after generators powered by hydrogen, natural gas and methanol now being developed for the car and energy industries.

PA

[Cyto]

I would think they are keeping in mind to make this device soak up as many e- as it strips so nothing starts generating constitutive stress on the surrounding tissue. *shrug*

[Lazarus Long]

Here is US News & World Reports on this same issue along with some good links.


http://story.news.ya...enceofthematrix
Next News: The science of The Matrix
Tue Aug 5, 3:25 PM ET U.S. News & World Report
By James M. Pethokoukis

I love it when science fact starts to nip at the heels of science fiction. It merely reinforces my belief that as long as some futuristic technology doesn't violate any physical laws, then never say "never." In The Matrix series, humanity's computer overseers derive their energy from a combination of fusion and humans as biobatteries. As Morpheus puts it: "The human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat . . . . Combined with a form of fusion, the machines have found all the energy they would ever need."

Science buffs thought that the "human battery" plot element was a real howler, since it would take more energy to keep humans alive than the amount of "bio-electric" energy that could be extracted from them. As has been pointed out, the "humans as batteries" scenario would seem to violate both the First and Second laws of thermodynamics, elegantly defined by scientist and novelist C. P. Snow as 1) "You cannot win"--you cannot get something for nothing, because matter and energy are conserved; and 2) "You cannot break even"--you cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder. (For further explanation, see this PhysLink.com page: http://www.physlink....erts/ae280.cfm)

All that is true. But if you ignore all the calories people take in, there's still energy to be extracted from the human body, according to this report from the Italian technology news site Tiscali. Researchers at Panasonic's nanotechnology research labs near Kyoto are developing a method of drawing power from blood glucose, mimicking the way the body generates energy from food. Theoretically, the article notes, a "bio-nanogenerator" could allow a person to pump out 100 watts--enough to illuminate a light bulb. That wouldn't leave any energy to run the body. But a bio-nano generator drawing less power could still run medical devices inside the body. It might not be an adequate electricity source for a global artificially intelligent computer network. But an alternate theory about The Matrix suggests that humans merely provided the spark for the fusion reactors and are now kept alive for some other purpose, to be revealed, I would bet, in the third and final installment of the series, Revolutions.