Microchip Powered by Body Heat

An anonymous reader writes "MIT and Texas Instruments researchers have designed a chip that they say could be up to 10 times more energy efficient than current technology. The chip's power consumption is so low that devices with the chip may even be able to be recharged using the owner's body heat." The intent is to use these in medical applications like pacemakers where one would expect to have the free power source.

Re:Powered by heat?

[MrNaz]

1. Having skin exposed to anything less than 37oC makes you colder. Losing a few extra W of thermal energy to power a microchip will not make a difference, it's trivial compared to the amount of energy you lose just by being exposed to air.
2. No, chemical reactions that are endothermic will occur at any temperature that supplies the necessary activation energy to the physical reagents.

Hope I didn't sound like an elitist snob...

Re:Powered by heat?

[exploder]

Parent is right--you might as well say that putting a teakettle on your gas range makes the flame get colder. It doesn't. It's just dissipating (part of) the heat through something useful instead of out into the environment at large.