The first urine-powered paper battery has been created by physicists in Singapore. The credit-card sized unit could be a useful power source for cheap healthcare test kits for diseases like diabetes, and could even be used in emergency situations to power a cellphone, they say.(Via Linkfilter.)
Testing urine can reveal the identity of illnesses, and the new paper battery could allow the sample being tested to also power the diagnostic device.
“We are striving to develop cheap, disposable credit-card sized biochips for disease detection,” says Ki Bang Lee, at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore. “Our battery can be easily integrated into such devices, supplying electricity on contact with biofluids such as urine or blood.”
And, speaking of liquid solutions: the Aquapub!
2 comments:
I really doubt these batteries are sustainable. The materials used to make it (copper, chlorine, magnesium, plastic) require energy-intensive processes to extract/create.
Dang, Jimblor. We had a solution within our... grasp.
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