Stop the Presses! Our Energy solution is at Hand!

[n2doc]

HAMSTER JACKETS HARNESS WHEEL-RUNNING POWER
Finally, the seemingly endless energy of hamsters running on their wheels is put to a useful purpose.

Hamsters can seemingly run forever inside their little wheels, and scientists from Georgia Tech are finally helping them get somewhere.

To harness hamster power, the scientists sewed electricity-generating threads one-fiftieth the width of a human hair into a yellow jacket worn by the hamsters as they ran. A human-sized jacket, capable of powering an iPod, could be ready in as little as three years.

"This can totally be scaled up," said Zhong Lin 'ZL' Wang, who co-authored a paper describing the research in this month's issue of Nano Letters. "This is just the first step. The idea is that we would harvest energy from any body movement, from walking, breathing, from any kind of vibration."

The jacket's tiny threads are really nanowires made of zinc oxide, the same white stuff smeared on the noses of lifeguards. When the nanowires are flexed, a small amount of electricity is generated.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/hamster-jacket-harnesses-power.html

[dkf]

1. Sounds like it would inspire us to get off our butts too.

Don't wanna move? No energy for you!

[NV Whino]

2. A free squirrel cage with every jacket.