• US team of researchers develops a way to generate electricity using viruses
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[QUOTE]Scientists in the US have developed a way to generate electricity using viruses. The researchers built a generator with a postage stamp-sized electrode and based on a small film of specially engineered viruses. When a finger tapped the electrode, the viruses converted the mechanical energy into electricity. The research by a team in California has been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Materials that can convert mechanical energy into electricity are known as "piezoelectric". "More research is needed, but our work is a promising first step toward the development of personal power generators, actuators for use in nano-devices, and other devices based on viral electronics," said Dr Seung-Wuk Lee at the University of California, Berkeley. The virus used in the research was an M13 bacteriophage, which attacks bacteria but is benign to humans. The Berkeley team used genetic engineering techniques to add four negatively charged molecules to one end of the corkscrew-shaped proteins that coat the virus. These additional molecules increased the charge difference between the proteins' positive and negative ends, boosting the voltage of the virus. Another advantage of using viruses for such tasks is that they arrange themselves into an orderly film that enables the generator to work. This attribute, known as "self-assembly" is much sought after in the field of nanotechnology. The scientists enhanced the system by stacking films composed of single layers of the virus on top of each other. They found that a stack about 20 layers thick exhibited the strongest piezoelectric effect. For the demonstration, they took a multilayered film of viruses measuring 1 sq cm and sandwiched it between two gold-plated electrodes. These were connected by wires to a liquid-crystal display. When pressure was applied to the generator, it was able to produce up to a quarter of the voltage of a common battery. This was enough current to flash the number "1" on the display. This isn't much, but Dr Lee said he was hopeful of improving on the "proof-of-principle" device. The researchers claim their advance could help lead to tiny devices that harvest electrical energy from the vibrations of everyday tasks such as shutting a door or climbing stairs.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18074644[/url]
This could be a big, important step in solving energy problems. Seems like a very clean method of generating electricity, too.
Yeah but the issue with piezoelectric materials is you need to put in mechanical energy to get electricity, so you still have to put energy in to get energy out, and the efficiency is the issue, unless you're gonna like put it under floorboards and shit and have the houses self powered. Can't see it working on a large scale is what I mean, I think it'll be more localised.
Now I understand why when I have fever I am so hyper...electricity
Did anyone else think it meant Computer Virus's?
Infectious electrocution.
you could possibly put this in shoes or clothes and have a portable charging station for your mobile phone, except you would have to be moving. May be useful when hiking, lights maybe?
So they've made a piezoelectric material but with viruses? I don't see how this is helpful, unless they're super efficient or really cheap to produce Also as someone above mentioned, this is essentially putting another energy conversion step in. Since each conversion step is not 100% efficient, you lose energy (a bit like the compressed air car gimmick). However if this thing plans to be used with residual energy from otherwise wasted sources then I can almost see it being useful. It could be used as a microphone [editline]15th May 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Lethaxx;35970586]you could possibly put this in shoes or clothes and have a portable charging station for your mobile phone, except you would have to be moving. May be useful when hiking, lights maybe?[/QUOTE] They've already got this, but it doesn't produce enough energy. Hopefully this thing is efficient
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;35969174]Yeah but the issue with piezoelectric materials is you need to put in mechanical energy to get electricity, so you still have to put energy in to get energy out, and the efficiency is the issue, unless you're gonna like put it under floorboards and shit and have the houses self powered. Can't see it working on a large scale is what I mean, I think it'll be more localised.[/QUOTE] Slowly charging my phone on the energy used from just walking around would be really sweet.
What if the virus evolved? It's possible considering how fast they propagate.
Put it under a busy street, lots of electricity
And suddenly the researchers are all found dead.
Sounds pretty cool and innovative, too bad we'll never hear of it again.
[QUOTE=meatballfish;35969119]This could be a big, important step in solving energy problems. Seems like a very clean method of generating electricity, too.[/QUOTE] then suddenly the viruses mutate and we end up getting infected with diseases that make us constantly get static shocks fucking hurts
And then suddenly we have a Virus rights groups as we have them as slaves working for electricity.
i dont think it could be suitable way of generating electricity
For the love of god: virii.
[QUOTE=THATCAKEISASPY;35981023]And then suddenly we have a Virus rights groups as we have them as slaves working for electricity.[/QUOTE] PeTA will get on it as soon as they stare a virus in the eyes... ...while it eats one of their members. Huh, that almost sounds like the Unitologists in Dead Space...
[QUOTE=dass;35981580]PeTA will get on it as soon as they stare a virus in the eyes... ...while it eats one of their members. Huh, that almost sounds like the Unitologists in Dead Space...[/QUOTE] Those kind of crazy movements and cults already exists in this very day, luckily only few of them can do anything dangerous. For example; Scientology
[QUOTE=smeismastger;35981726]Those kind of crazy movements and cults already exists in this very day, luckily only few of them can do anything dangerous. For example; Scientology[/QUOTE] Something tells me PeTA will join in aswell.
I'm still waiting for my Tesla coil powered car and rifle.
[QUOTE=DrLuke;35981557]For the love of god: virii.[/QUOTE] If you're going to be correcting people you should be using the right word. Viruses is the plural of virus, virii is a word make up by morons who think they know Latin. It's as dumb as saying platypii for platypus rather than platypodes. The only -ii words in English are denarii and radii. Learn the language before you correct people. Fuck. I can't go into a thread which discusses viruses without someone trying to act smarter than they are.
So Windows could potentially auto-alimentate itself and Linux would be still shitty with power management :v:
Feed convicted felons to the virus, increase electricity output.
[QUOTE=DrLuke;35981557]For the love of god: virii.[/QUOTE] No, it's actually virosorum, know your stuff.
[QUOTE=DarkendSky;35972920]Slowly charging my phone on the energy used from just walking around would be really sweet.[/QUOTE] Yeah but that's the sort of applications I'm talking about, localised small scale stuff, you're NEVER gonna be able to use this shit anywhere large scale like in industry to solely generate power, although I can see it working if you put it on turbines in power plants to make it more efficient. Although that is assuming that the viruses are pretty sensitive to force, and even then it might be inefficient to just slap that shit on turbines.
[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VRUwF_g5iR0/SVYLCeU-oUI/AAAAAAAAAiM/rc0Bh01XkOs/s1600/smithandmorpheus02.jpg[/IMG] [I]Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet[/I]
A vibration motor (like one from a duel-shock PS2 remote) connected to a plate that hosts the "electro-viri" plate and put in series could work, as long as there were something to limit the speed of the motor. Then all you'd need to do to start it would be to simply flick it, maybe a few times. [quote=Pierrewithahat]Yeah but that's the sort of applications I'm talking about, localised small scale stuff, you're NEVER gonna be able to use this shit anywhere large scale like in industry to solely generate power, although I can see it working if you put it on turbines in power plants to make it more efficient. Although that is assuming that the viruses are pretty sensitive to force, and even then it might be inefficient to just slap that shit on turbines. [/quote] One could put a layer of them on one side of the turbines blades, as long as they don't move [i]too[/i] fast, the vibration from that could be enough.
[QUOTE=An Armed Bear;35980623]And suddenly the researchers are all found dead.[/QUOTE] But one wakes up and has lighting bolt flinging super powers :v:
[QUOTE=Kendra;35982696]No, it's actually virosorum, know your stuff.[/QUOTE] The suffix suggests it would be of the genitive case which seems odd for a word supposedly used iEnglish as well. I don't know how famiwith latin (could have used a translator with no understanding), nouns in Latin have several forms, each with a distinct meaning (the origin, purpose, destination, etc is given in each different form). Do you have a source? I won't deny it would be a correct [I]latin[/I] plural noun, but I dont think it would ever be uses in that form in English.
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