The Gadget Helpline‘s REEL TO REAL is a regular feature to the blog, aimed at tech and film fanatics, which will reveal how the sci-fi and futuristic gadgets we see on screen in movies and television are making their way into real-life. Take a seat, grab your popcorn and enjoy the show!
There’s some truly fascinating and frightening research into the potential for the blood of a living creature to be converted into energy to fuel bionics, which could someday see us used as human batteries – Just like in the post-apocalyptic robot-revolutionary vision of the future seen in The Matrix film series!
The Clarkson University of New York State has developed a fuel cell which uses enzymes to withdraw electrons from a snail’s hemolymph – the fluid which acts as blood in a number of insects and carries vital to life substances such as glucose – and change them into power. Currently these electrons have been clocked at seven millionths of a watt – so not really that much. But imagine what something much larger could produce. Something like a human being for example.
But don’t worry about being herded up and plugged into a ‘droid driven battery farm just yet. Right now the study is only being held on the humble snail but there is a view to trialling the research with humans a long time in the future, with intentional of finding an alternative power source for helpful gadgets such as pacemakers and other battery powered medical devices, as well as high tech prosthetics.
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