Wired News reports:
A 16-year-old high school student has invented a new way of producing electricity by harnessing the brawny power of bacteria.
Kartik Madiraju, an 11th-grader from Montreal, was able to generate about half the voltage of a normal AA battery with a fifth of an ounce of naturally occurring magnetic bacteria. And the bacteria kept pumping current for 48 hours nonstop.
Three students at my alamater have created a biodiseal production plant to power the college’s organic farm. Great job guys! I love seeing small-scale projects like this.
Link (via Last Word Blog).
If water powered cars aren’t good enough for you, you should check out this French air powered car. It works by expanding air. It does require an outside powersource to compress the air in the first place, but it’s highly effecient. The car will most likely be used for taxi businesses outside the United States.
MIT Technology Review: Air-powered Autos (via Street Tech).
Another sign that the future is (finally) coming: Moller International has invented a flying car (via Boing Boing).
From Wired:
Even if Bush’s hydrogen-car initiative is a cynical ploy, even if the Big Three are hiding behind hydrogen promises to prolong the reign of the V-8 and oilmen secretly want to strangle the fuel cell in its cradle, simple geology is carrying us toward a post-gasoline future. Petroleum’s days are numbered. GM executives themselves understand that. Some say the oil will last 20 more years and some say 50, but nobody says forever.
The latest issue of Shift profiles their selections of the ten most important “green innovators” – people who are using technology to better the environment. Some of these people are doing some pretty cool projects. And yes, they include Viridian Design founder Bruce Sterling:
Business 2.0 has a well written article examining eight near-future technologies that they believe will change the world:
They’ve got a pretty good list, but where are the anti-cancer nano-bots? Cheap solar power? Particle transmitters/teleporters?
Through the use of nanotechnology “Cheap, plastic solar cells that can be painted onto just about any surface could provide power for a range of portable and even wearable electronic devices,” CNN reports. But they’re not yet ready for deployment.
CNN: Group makes plastic solar energy cells
(via Fark)
SRI International and the Defense Department are developing these boots that will convert the electric power of walking into electricity that can be used to charge batteries. This sounds like a great way to use energy more efficiently:
At the heart, or rather sole, of the experimental foot-ware is a heel made of a special elastic polymer. A tiny battery positively charges one side of the flexible material and the other negatively. As the material is compressed and released — such as by the foot pressure generated during walking — the distance between the positive and negative sides change, which in turn creates electricity.
According to the BBC fusion power is “within reach.” Meanwhile, on a smaller scale but still very exciting is the developement of tiny batteries that convert body heat into electrical power. (Links via Slashdot).
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