Iron Ink Media: Inked Up

Foxnews.com actually has some information that’s worth a damn! No, no, hear me out. They cite actual research this time that says that there is a way to convert human blood flow into actual energy that could power your iPhone. They say:

Researchers reported today they can harvest energy by converting low-frequency vibrations, like simple body movements, the beating of the heart or movement of the wind, into electricity by using zinc oxide nanowires that conduct the electricity.

The nanowires are piezoelectric — they generate an electric current when subjected to mechanical stress.

Other schemes have been devised to generate power in a backpack as you hike or from a device attached to the knee. Those are comparatively bulky, however.

Nano devices are tiny. The diameter and length of the wires used in the new technique are 1/5,000th and 1/25th the diameter of a human hair.

“This research will have a major impact on defense technology, environmental monitoring, biomedical sciences and even personal electronics,” said lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang, Regents’ Professor, School of Material Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.