Potato-Powered Batteries Debut 284
MojoKid writes "Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has just introduced what it's calling 'solid organic electric battery based upon treated potatoes.' In short, it's a potato-powered battery, and it's as real as you're hoping it is. The simple, sustainable, robust device can potentially provide an immediate inexpensive solution to electricity needs in parts of the world lacking electrical infrastructure. Researchers at the Hebrew University discovered that the enhanced salt bridge capability of treated potato tubers can generate electricity through means readily available in developing nations."
food (Score:3, Insightful)
Or they could just eat them...
Re:Puff piece (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure there's a significant way this differs from 50% of 4th grade science projects...
Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)
They did, and right now the oil is killing all of our food :{
!story (Score:1, Insightful)
As has already been pointed out, these are copper and zinc powered batteries.
There should be a Slashdot feature where if enough people flag an article, it gets relocated off the front page.
And don't even get me started on whoever let this get the "story" tag.
Re:Puff piece (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed. This article is painfully embarrassing.
Yep... 1.6 billion people are going to boil potatoes and place them between sheets of copper and zinc in order to light an LED [hothardware.com]. Who writes this stuff?
Boiled potatoes sitting around for weeks. It's a revolution!
Lemon Battery (Score:1, Insightful)
I guess this company will invent the "Lemon battery" next. It's an upgrade that provides even more power!
Re:Israel and batteries (Score:2, Insightful)
They're trying to saturate the media with weird battery stories so that nobody notices them announcing that the country is switching over to electricity generated from the tears of Palestinian children. You didn't think they made Gaza into an open-air prison *just* because they're Nazis, did you?
Re:food (Score:5, Insightful)
NEWSFLASH - not everyone in developing nation is starving and short of food. For some, an alternative power source such as this is appropriate.
Ooooorrr.... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want energy, you could ferment them tatties, distill good 'ol CH3CH2OH and burn it. You might get more watt-hours/spud this way and there'd be no electrodes to replace.
Now, if you actually need small, cheaply refillable batteries for portable devices, this would be nice provided the electrodes don't wear out too much.
Re:Puff piece (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:food (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)
What you say would be true only if potato production were limited to current levels and if there were no surplus. In fact, potato production could be increased to accommodate use for batteries, and in any case th ere is actually a surplus. Total world food production is adequate - the reason that some people starve is poor distribution of the available food, in considerable part due to political reasons. (Starvation in North Korea, for example, is the result of the incompetence of the country's government.)
Re:Israel and batteries (Score:5, Insightful)
Possibly because solar power is pretty big in Israel, so high tech batteries are in their best interest. And, just some baseless postulating here, but when you're surrounded by neighbors who don't much care for you whose biggest asset is oil, improving those alternative energy techniques might be a good idea. If Israel perfected solar power & storage, that could conceivably go a ways towards helping the world kick it's oil habit (solar powered batteries for your house and car), which would cut into the cashflow of said neighbors. So, batteries are good for them, and there is a chance that maybe possibly we're seeing some sort of scientific-economic-political strategy at work here.
Re:food (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell, many of them probably eat better than we do... less reliance on hyper-processed junk.
Re:Puff piece (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I can put up with a lot of idiocy before I start to suspect malice, but this has gone too far. A potato battery article on slashdot, "news for nerds"? Kdawson is officially a troll.
Re:Puff piece (Score:3, Insightful)
Kdawson is officially a troll.
This should be modded insightful not funny.
Re:Israel and batteries (Score:0, Insightful)
Not so ironic. Elite Jews financed a large part of the Nazi regime. Kill off their poor, get world sympathy, voila! Instant "homeland" stolen from the natives.. The Zionists are criminals.. of the worst kind. They have quite a head start on worldwide terrorism..
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
FOOD SHOULD BE SOLD FOR ENERGY (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Chips? (Score:1, Insightful)
So does this mean we will be able to have our chips powered by chips?
No, it means the end of Freedom Fries!
Only if Apple adopts the technology.
Bulllllllllshit! (Score:3, Insightful)
So, batteries are good for them, and there is a chance that maybe possibly we're seeing some sort of scientific-economic-political strategy at work here.
Ugh.
The "Yissum Research Development Company Ltd." trying to sell this turd has come up with a way to turn a food source into a power source. Except, it doesn't work because. . .
1. The power comes from oxidization of metal and needn't involve potatoes at all. It could just as well be cow dung. Or a cup of salt water.
2. The potatoes need to be boiled first, so there's a huge amount of energy already being spent/wasted.
3. Potatoes rot and thus any power system would be saddled with ridiculous limitations in terms of maintenance, portability, and time constraints.
4. We already have wind-up radios and solar solar powered devices. Conventional electronics still wouldn't work, because you can't plug potatoes into them, so you'd need extra gear just to use the craptastic consumer-level garbage devices which don't even last in suburbia for more than a year. It makes a lot more sense to use electronics specifically designed for harsh environments.
But the thing which makes this sick is that the scientists who came up with this potato thing are not stupid. They know all these problems exist, which begs the question; what is their real aim?
It sure isn't to create great battery technology so as to stymie their oil-rich neighbors. It's probably an attempt to generate some positive media spin for their university and by extension Israel, (green is good and people are too stupid to realize when they are being manipulated through media!) -That, combined with some underlying psychopathic desire to sell a bad bill of goods to people who are already hurting.
Yeah. So, thanks, Israel. If you wanted to make sure underprivileged people have electricity, perhaps you should NOT bomb their infrastructure while saying, "Look what you made me do with the bottle rockets our own Mossad organized you into firing at us so we could have an excuse to steal your land!"
Psychopaths blame the victims for their own crimes. That's the pattern. Look for it.
Anybody disagreeing with me simply hasn't done the research or is evil.
-FL
Re:food (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:food (Score:3, Insightful)
NEWSFLASH - not everyone in developing nation is starving and short of food.
That's true.
But in a hot climate how long will it be before the boiled potato rots?