Super Eco

Photo credit: Zhong Lin Wang

Thanks to the Internet, we know how incredible our little friend the hamster is. We've watched him turn and stare at us dramatically and eat popcorn on a piano. Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered another slightly more practical reason to love our furry little friends: energy creation. Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang dressed hamsters in small "jackets" attached to nanogenerators. When the hamsters ran on their spinning wheels, they generated small but detectable amounts of electricity. The nanogenerator jacket contains zinc oxide wires and other materials that generate electricity when they contract and then relax, in what is known as the piezoelectric effect.

Currently, it would take over 1,000 running hamsters to create enough electricity to simply power a mobile phone, but the professor believes that this technology could be harnessed and improved to potentially allow humans to create electricity with movement. The Georgia Tech researchers have already demonstrated the same energy creation capabilities with a tapping finger. The nanogenerators, in fact, function with nearly any kind of biomechanical motion, including vocal cord vibration and flapping flags.

The video below displays a few brief seconds of the project in motion. I'm of the mind that if the hamster enjoys running on the spinning wheel then it's not a negative form of animal testing. I'm waiting for the day when my fluid motions create all the electricity I need for the day. It would be a great way to get people to exercise, too. If everyone attaches a nanogenerator jacket and runs for ten minutes we'll be greener and healthier!