It Ate My Fort!: Sony's Cardboard-Powered Battery
Seen here trying to steal my soul with her stare, a Sony employee demonstrates a new "biological" battery capable of turning cellulose into glucose into energy efficiently enough to power an MP3 player. Me? I'm still cool recharging mine via USB, but what do I know? (SPOILER: Everything, I'm a centuries-old warlock).
All it takes to power this bio-battery, then, is a bunch of chopped up cardboard immersed in a solution of water and different types of enzymes. The first enzyme breaks the cellulose in the cardboard into glucose, which the second enzyme then eats to produce electricity. It's basically a little digestive tract that eats used paper products and poops out electrons and water, without relying on any heavy metals or chemicals or anything.
Pretty cool, right? Sure, if you don't mind carrying around a giant bottle of cardboard juice and eyedropping it on the battery every five minutes. Sorry Sony, but you know what you should've been working on instead of a battery that runs on cardboard? A battery that breakdances on cardboard. Oh shishi -- that 'lil AA is spinning on his head!
Sony's new termite battery runs on shredded cardboard [dvice]
Thanks to paisley pia and Luke, who still power their electronics the old fashioned way: trapping lightning in a jar. OMG, I remember making Zeus batteries!
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