Self-Powered: Fuel Cell Can Use Body's Nutrients

The time will come when we won't be overcome with guilt whenever we overeat. Our laptops need power.

In the quest for new, renewable and efficient power sources we now turn to a rather obvious solution: ourselves.

No, not the solution used by the machines in the Matrix Trilogy. Engineers are now developing what is called a biofuel cell. Electricity is generated by creating chemical reactions that use sugar and oxygen, much like how mitochondria in our cells generate energy from these substances. And guess what is the most readily-available source of that. Yes, the blood in our bodies.

What the engineers are looking for are lightweight, compact dependable ways of powering space-borne electronics such as medical sensors, hence the idea of using implantable biofuel cells. Powering our iPods will come later, though. A satellite equipped with a biofuel cell powered by tanks of sugar and oxygen will be flown into space to see how well it will perform.

Now if only they can make a variant that can directly use this beer belly of mine as an energy source.

via Discovery News