Georgia Tech researchers develop environmentally-powered nanogenerators

 

While the school of the Ramblin' Wreck may be best known for its barrage of engineering graduates, the university has been on quite the medical trip of late, as researchers have reportedly developed a nanometer-scale generator after already cranking out nanowires that monitor your blood pressure. The aptly-named nanogenerators can produce "continuous direct-current electricity by harvesting mechanical energy from such environmental sources as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibration or blood flow," which translates into easy energy for implanted and worn medical gadgetry of the future. Interestingly, the project was funded by the likes of the National Science Foundation and our pals at DARPA, and while this invention may not quite match up with wireless charging (hey, we're scared of hospitals), the concept is novel nonetheless. So if you were hoping that dreams of implanted analysis of your vitals would suddenly cease, things aren't looking up for you.

[Via MedGadget]

 

Silicon nanowire could convert light into electrical energy

Nanoelectonic devices have to have juice too, and thanks to a team at Harvard University, extraordinarily minuscule gizmos of the future could be powered via a "silicon nanowire that can convert light into electrical energy." The device itself is said to look much like a typical coaxial cable, but it's around 100,000 times smaller and shuns metal in favor of "silicon with three different types of conductivity arranged as layered shells." Reportedly, a single strand can output "up to 200-picowatts," which won't move much, but it could be just enough to run ultralow power electronics that could be worn on, or even inside, the body. Hopefully they'll have this all ironed out by the time we need a pacemaker.

[Image courtesy of Harvard]

 

   

  

Researchers hope to charge up gadgetry with body heat

 

We've heard of firms tinkering with the idea of converting excess heat directly to energy, and apparently, a team of scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have done just that. Oddly enough, the researchers admit that they're still unclear on how their findings actually work, but they've nevertheless discovered how to increase the conversion efficiency of converting waste heat to energy "by a factor of 100." The authors of the report suggest that clothing constructed of material embedded with thermoelectric modules could one day "recharge mobile electronic devices off the heat of one's body," and while we're certainly stoked about the idea, we're already conjuring up awful images in our minds about what this garb will actually look like.

[Via textually, image courtesy of FourEyesJokeShop]

 

  

Piezoelectric nanowires could lead to blood-powered iPods, cellphones

You know what'll be awesome? Actual end products resulting from this presumably nonstop research on piezoelectric nanowires. Yet again we're hearing of a new group of researchers that have figured out a way to harness electricity from life's simplest things: walking, a heart beating or even the flowing of blood. Put simply, the gurus have discovered how to use zinc oxide nanowires in order to generate an electric current when "subjected to mechanical stress." The difference here, however, is that these critters could actually be implanted under the skin, though the scientists have made quite clear that there isn't a timetable for commercial production. In other words: yawn.

[Via textually, image courtesy of NSF]