Materials science and engineering assistant professor Xudong Wang, post-doctoral researcher Chengliang Sun and graduate student Jian Shi created a tiny device that generates electricity when passed over by low-speed airflow, such as that created by respiration (breathing)....
October 6, 2011
Harnessing wind power on a tiny scale: through the nose.
Invented at the University of Wisconsin:
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36 comments:
What is the danger of fatal electric shock if you sneeze?
What about the 99% of us who don't have really large honkers? Who takes care of us?
You may have problems during allergy seasons and the winter.
It sounds sort of cool, but what exactly are we powering with that?
Sure, but what does my nose get out of all this? That's the key question.
Xudong Wang...Chengliang Sun...Jian Shi
I'm sure these three couldn't have done it without the diversity that is so important and the AA programs that create it.
Wait, stick an "i" in front of it = genius!
What about the 99% of us who don't have really large honkers? Who takes care of us?
We are the 99%. Free rhinoplasty for ALL! Occupy Nasal Cavity!
Fine, discriminate against us mouth-breathers.
Wow, that is really neat.
On the plus side, this will let us bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while reestablishing ... the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.
wv = snesses - that will provide more power.
Good for powering a stillsuit.
Waxman could supply all our energy needs!
At last a job opportunity for Wisconsin graduates. We harness them to a wind farm of heavy breathing workers similar to oarsmen in ancient warships.
"We calculated if we could make this material (PVDF) thin enough, small vibrations could produce a microwatt of electrical energy that could be useful for sensor or other devices implanted in the face."
GET OUTTA MY FACE!
"Harnessing wind power on a tiny scale: through the nose."
And if it's anything like solar energy, that's how we'll be paying for it.
Up your nose with a...engineered polyvinylidene fluoride!
Fine, discriminate against us mouth-breathers.
"Rent-e-lephant" provided under Coverage E Medicare. Includes care and feeding.
What to power with it?
How about a temperature control system that surrounds each person's body with just a thin layer, like 1/16". Then we can stop heating and air-conditioning rooms. Everyone has self-sufficient temperature control, powered by his own breathing.
Apparently they've decided to bypass battery route and the electrolyte potential of urine.
Then there's personal methane that's been overlooked.
A small steam engine worn on the belt could generate electrical power for active 3d glasses.
A standard high impedance microphone generates electricity from sound.
Use it in women's meetings to run the lights.
Then also you can suck power from radio stations with a standard crystal set and use the DC to run a radio tuned to another station.
This was a project in the 50s in the Raytheon things-to-do-with-your-ck722 transistor book.
AA-
Nice idea, really, but a microwatt isn't going to power much in the way of heat or cooling.
No matter what size suit one may wear.
Think of the money we could save on Medicaid if nursing homes could harness this power & reduce their operating expenses.
lol rh, make them so, number one.
"Ann Althouse said...
How about a temperature control system that surrounds each person's body with just a thin layer, like 1/16". Then we can stop heating and air-conditioning rooms. Everyone has self-sufficient temperature control, powered by his own breathing." Yeah, there is no way that produces near enough power by a factor of...well lots...and you still need to heat your house in the winter for other reasons...so your pipes don't freeze and your ass doesn't stick to the toilet seat. Bathing. Etc.
By the by, materials science and engineering at UW is full of some very brilliant people and I'm not saying that just because I'm friends with a couple of them. Well, I guess I am. Even still, there really is a lot of interesting stuff going on in that department.
Wait a minute. There's a Chinese AP and students at UW? Now that's news.
/snark
Ann Althouse said...
What to power with it?
How about a temperature control system...
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Althouse, I bet you think of yourself as an intelligent person, and I am pretty sure you think of Obama and his people as intelligent too. But - I'm assuming you read at least as much from the link as I did from the comments - they are talking MICROwatts (µW). A microwatt is one millionth of a watt.
How much heat does the body generate? See
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=145043
for a discussion, but the long and the short of it is that a 100W bulb is a fair approximation.
100W = 100,000,000 µW
The LED on your phone charger that tells you it's plugged in probably uses 4,000 - 40,000 uW. Touch one of those and you will hardly feel the warmth.
Are you getting the picture or just getting bored? Let me cut to the chase: the idea that you could heat or cool the human body in any noticeable way with such an exiguous power supply is risible.
This, in my mind, makes you unintelligent. Or at least ignorant. I'm sure that Obama and his people (Chu aside) would glom onto your idea, though, so I guess you keep good company. Bush or Palin would politely, I am quite sure, chew this up and spit it out.
I guess I'm supposed to assume you are intelligent and work back from that - how does an intelligent person make such a mistake - but my contempt is difficult to suppress - this puts you IMHO in the intellectual realm of a comfort woman.
The only respectable way I could see you buying this is if someone you trusted and respected sold it to you with a straight face. That person, if extant, has just made you look like a fool.
(Meade, it ain't April yet! Nahh, you wouldn't do that to her. But you should find out who did and beat him.)
How could a student in your classes ever respect you after this? I think this is far more glaring than being on the wrong side of the evolution question, and people like garage would just about read you out of society for that sort of thing.
TW: Yes, many leftists would ostracize you ferlese of a blunder than this.
Nichevo, do you realize how dull that was?
I think it's a great idea.
But then I was also an early investor in the Opti-Grab.
The Chicommies, enriched by free trade and all the jobs they took from other countries, now trail only the US in number of patents and scientific publications and since they have industries that can employ them - are now leading the world in cranking out scientists, engineers, and skilled techs.
(You lose industry, you also lose the need for private sector engineers, scientists, math whizes in those fields. Government becomes th only game left in town..or taking up a different career path, like being a Goldman Sachs derivatives and computer trade analyst)
This invention by the Chicommie could be very valuable in extending the functioning life of a stand alone sensor that lacks an external power line and is not exposed to sunlight, but does get airflow. Right now these sensors that draw minimal power, function only as long as the steadily draining battery lasts.
There also appears to be a significant application in future nanotech..the invention should generate power in "other than air" fluid flows. Which could power nanite mechanisms in places like the human bloodstream and industrial fluid processes.
We will see what new factories spring up in China from this in 5-10 years.
I would have thought there were enough mouth breathers in Madison to harness even more of that hot air.
Ann Althouse 10/6/11 2:43 PM : I thought you would resent and/or be confused by "You fucking moron, suck my dick, that's all you're good for, Jesus why did they give women the vote/teach them to read/to talk" without explanation, though it would have been pithier and that's where you're at.
I made the mistake of trying to educate you. Sorry about that. Note to self: don't try to teach women science, at least old and over-entitled ones.
PS: I am beginning to find your shtick dull too.
I'm sorry, still too long. How about "Bitch, you are too stupid to live?" Much tighter.
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