Apr 5 2009Let Me Guess, Robots Invented These Too: Little Batteries Powered By Human Blood
It may look like the world's smallest golden wallet, but it's actually a cyborg battery. You see, in the future robots will harvest humans to provide the blood they need to recharge their batteries. Well, happy Sunday to you too!
A small colony of yeast lives inside each battery, and this living core of the fuel cell can draw energy from glucose (sugar) in blood flowing around it. According to New Scientist:
The yeast-based fuel cell produces around 40 nanowatts of power, compared to the microwatt a typical wristwatch battery might produce, Chaio says. That might be enough power for some devices if it were coupled with a capacitor to allow energy to be stored. The yeast could also be genetically engineered to boost its power output.
Great news. No really, that's just wonderful. Currently, scientists are considering the cyborg battery for use in pacemakers and other implantable devices, while robots are considering how much blood they need to power chainsaws and laser blasters. But I'll tell you one thing -- ain't no robotic vampire drilling this neck. Eat oak, Dracu-bot! *tink* Oh shit.
Batteries That Feed on Blood [io9]
Thanks to David, Jon and Jamie, who refuse to donate blood to a damn robot.
Reader Comments
1. crimson skies - April 5, 2009 2:11 PM
1st
2. LiquidKarma - April 5, 2009 2:13 PM
Well it's about time...
3. $.02 and a pocket full of FAH-Q - April 5, 2009 2:19 PM
Well that's just creepy.
4. Göhmer ☠ - April 5, 2009 2:29 PM
HOLY AWESOME!! now emo kids will never need to buy batteries for their mp3 players, thats a plus side
EVERYONE HERE JUST LOST THE GAME!!
5. Wes - April 5, 2009 2:39 PM
whyyyyy......................???
What mad scientist thought of this?
6. Salza - April 5, 2009 3:09 PM
my boyfriend would love this!
7. Ryan - April 5, 2009 4:45 PM
Uhhh. You dont power a chainsaw with electricity... That's what gasoline is for.
I am the first to say this, and therefore sweet.
8. Watch - April 5, 2009 5:35 PM
nice!
9. BB - April 5, 2009 5:54 PM
Awesome technological advance, the uses for these are endless.
10. JJtoob - April 5, 2009 8:02 PM
Seems useful if it powers something inside a person. For anything outside of a human body, you can use anything with sugar in it, like juice or soda. So make sure you always carry a Caprisun in case a robot demands blood.
11. naas - April 5, 2009 9:45 PM
blooderies will be great once we have robots that run on blood
12. Tabion - April 5, 2009 9:59 PM
Wow, the future looks awesome! Think about it: the cybered up dudes from Shadowrun wouldn't need to recharge their mechanical arms and wired reflexes from a wall outlet, they could just eat some Skittles!
"Yo, watch out man, this guy has a rocket punch and he's packing some Ultra-Sour Skittles! We're DoOoOoOoOoOoOMED!!!!!"
And then,. their wouldn't be any problem with being Hyperglycemic, since you could just get a custom battery implant and Voilà! Diabetes (partly) begone!
Sugar is the new Oil. Screw Water. Water can kiss my hairy rump. Cmon people, get to buying sugar stock! We'll be the kings of Sugar!! To us will come the harems, the castles, the unwanted American interest and most of all, the political clout needed to force countries to put our faces on their money!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHANARF!!!!
13. Daisy - April 5, 2009 10:14 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max heard that Baja had a yeast infection. He asked her if he could have some to make beer, and she slapped him.
14. dan - April 5, 2009 10:34 PM
no see, it doesn't work for our future robot masters to harvest energy, as they would still have to feed their human underlings. it would be much simpler to just convert the food directly into energy without it going through humans at all.
15. will - April 5, 2009 11:13 PM
ROTFLOL hahahahhahahahahahah *tink* oh shit hahahahah
16. Spikey DaPikey - April 6, 2009 4:39 AM
Zombie vampire robots...... thats it, were screwed !
17. Gordon "Fücking" Shumway - April 6, 2009 9:33 AM
So it doesn't actually eat blood, it eats sugar. Sounds like how every cell in our bodies work. Neat. Now go fix ma a sammich. I gotta charge my cell phone.
18. catch22 - April 6, 2009 10:05 AM
thats actually pretty awesome pretty soon a human will be able to outlive most trees..
*looking forward to living long enough to watch plastic biodegrate*
19. Gordon "Fücking" Shumway - April 6, 2009 10:15 AM
@18
Between that and stem cells. This is gona be a fun ride.
20. naas - April 6, 2009 10:44 AM
indeed
21. the black penny - April 6, 2009 10:53 AM
i wonder if this would work if u had diabetes...thata all about suger .
22. Amaranth - April 6, 2009 1:48 PM
considering this article was created on the 1st of this month I call this a bluff
23. JesseTheKid - April 6, 2009 3:42 PM
*tink* oh shit LOL! (me and 15 think thin you are awesome top the power of ill, IWS writer)
24. JesseTheKid - April 6, 2009 3:42 PM
i mean GW writer
25. JesseTheKid - April 6, 2009 3:43 PM
i mean GW
26. jason Y - April 6, 2009 4:09 PM
so what THE MATRIX WAS RIGHT???? WTF?????
i dont get it why THE HELL would someone make batteries powered by blood WHAT THE FCK???
WHAT is the purpose for this SHT!
27. pseudoname - April 6, 2009 11:04 PM
not my blood...not my blood..not my blood..not my blood