[HN Gopher] A fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes livin...
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       A fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt
        
       Author : wglb
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2024-01-18 19:50 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.northwestern.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.northwestern.edu)
        
       | ryanblakeley wrote:
       | > generated 68x more power than needed to operate its sensors
       | 
       | > all components...can be purchased at a local hardware store
       | 
       | I can't help but think this would be used for surveillance. All
       | you need is dirt to run a sensor and transmitter. But it's cool
       | science.
       | 
       | It would be interesting to figure out how much does it take away
       | from the soil biome's energy budget. If you did a whole acre of
       | these, would the insects, worms, and millipedes take a hit, and
       | then birds and reptiles etc.?
        
         | happyopossum wrote:
         | A single acre of anything isn't really enough to affect upper
         | level life forms - birds, lizards, heck - even insects can move
         | a few hundred feet that-a-way and get back to doing what they
         | do.
        
       | Metacelsus wrote:
       | We made one of these in my college microbiology class! It could
       | blink a red LED.
       | 
       | Many kinds of soil bacteria aren't very picky about their choice
       | of electron acceptor. They're "breathing" using wires instead of
       | oxygen.
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-19 23:01 UTC)