[url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100914-fuel-cell-biofuels-medical-implants-human-health/]SOURCE[/url]
[quote]
In a medical first, the device made electricity from inside a living animal.
[img]http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/208/cache/mice-fuel-cells-implants-pacemaker_20855_600x450.jpg[/img]
A new fuel cell is putting a twist on alternative energy from biofuels: The implanted device draws power from chemicals in living animals.
Dubbed a glucose biofuel cell, the implant gets its juice from glucose—aka blood sugar—and oxygen, both of which are naturally present in the fluids between a body's cells.
In a recent study, researchers created a test version of their glucose biofuel cell and implanted it in a white lab rat named Ricky. The rat sported the device successfully for 11 days and suffered no ill effects.
Wires running from the fuel cell out of the rat's neck showed that the device was producing a significant amount of energy.
The team hopes that their biofuel cell could one day provide safe, longer-lasting power to the next generation of medical implants, such as smaller pacemakers and artificial organs.
"In the future we are expecting to develop, for instance, implantable biosensors able to monitor the level of glucose to control the insulin pump," an implant used to treat diabetes, said study co-author Serge Cosnier of the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France.
"The injection of insulin will be more efficient if the glucose level is detected continuously."
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Looks like it might have some potential for greater things.
Knowing anything this will just be used to waste energy so fat people don't actually have to do excercise.
This will soon power neural implants, prosthetic limbs, and bionic sensory replacements. :science:
[QUOTE=Devodiere;24874106]Knowing anything this will just be used to waste energy so fat people don't actually have to do excercise.[/QUOTE]
Power electric cars off this shit
America's obesity and oil problems solved
Seriously... we can now control prosthetic limbs directly with our nervous systems. We have rudimentary bionic eyes. How long until the first "remove your brain, put it in a jar and into a robot body" operation is made available? And from there, how long until you can put your brain in a vault underground and remotely control robots?
How long until Tradestar Midas is delivering robot bodies to brains in jars in underground vaults?
[QUOTE=Umi-hebi;24874155]Power electric cars off this shit
America's obesity and oil problems solved[/QUOTE]
Or power the TV so those ads about burning energy while you watch TV will finally be true.
Science :love:
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