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BRodda
The Feature Creep

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 990

Not your father's science fair project

05/12/2006 9:25 AM

The term science fair brings to mind paper mache volcanoes and experiments with worms and fruit-flies, but one 16 year old in Canada harnessed a brand new non-polluting electrical power source. Kartik Madiraju an 11th grader from Montreal was able to produce 25 microamps and 5.5 microwatts of power for over 48 hours, with bacteria. That's about 1/2 the power of a AA battery.
It turns out there is a type of magnetic bacteria that lives in almost every body of water, fresh or salt, and they are magnetic. As we all know you get an electrical current when you spin a magnet; he just spun these bacteria.
Beats the hell out of my how jet engines work from my 11 grade science project.
Read more from Wired.

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Lapinbleu
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France - Member - Blue Rabbit

Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Douarnenez, Bretagne, France
Posts: 80
Good Answers: 1
#1

Half a loaf better than no bread...

05/13/2006 4:27 AM

"was able to produce 25 microamps and 5.5 microwatts of power for over 48 hours, with bacteria. That's about 1/2 the power of a AA battery."

That should read "half the voltage", not quite the same thing. Nice initiative, though.

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BRodda
The Feature Creep

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 990
#4
In reply to #1

Re:Half a loaf better than no bread...

05/15/2006 8:36 AM

Yes, I missed that too. However I'm more impressed with the amps than the volts. If I'm looking for generating high voltage at low amperage I'd just shuffle my feet on the rug.

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STL Engineer
Guru
Hobbies - HAM Radio - New Member Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member United States - Member - New Member Engineering Fields - Mechanical Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Saint Louis, Missouri USA
Posts: 1929
Good Answers: 9
#5
In reply to #4

Re:Half a loaf better than no bread...

05/15/2006 9:01 AM

The original article DID say half the voltage, but if the numbers for current and power are right, that is not correct either. Power = Voltage x Current so Voltage = Power / Current.

V= .0000055 watts / .000025 amps = 0.22 volts

The nominal (no load) voltage of a standard AA battery is 1.5 volts. So the bacteria produced less than 15% of a standard AA cell.

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Pragmatist
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Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member Popular Science - Cosmology - New Member

Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 261
#2

Magnetic bacteria

05/14/2006 10:01 PM

Maybe I missed something, but it seems the energy derives from the 'spinning` with the bacteria only supplying the field, which permanent magnets could do better. Fascinating certainly, but usefull???
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BRodda
The Feature Creep

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 990
#3
In reply to #2

Re:Magnetic bacteria

05/15/2006 8:14 AM

The energy for the spinning is coming from the bacteria rather than from some mechanical source. So they supply both the mechanical energy as well as the field.

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