MIT Creates Glucose Fuel Cell To Power Implanted Brain-Computer Interfaces 95
MrSeb writes "Neuroengineers at MIT have created an implantable fuel cell that generates electricity from the glucose present in the cerebrospinal fluid that flows around your brain and spinal cord. The glucose-powered fuel cell is crafted out of silicon and platinum, using standard semiconductor fabrication processes. The platinum acts as a catalyst, stripping electrons from glucose molecules, similar to how aerobic animal cells (such as our own) strip electrons from glucose with enzymes and oxygen. The glucose fuel cell produces hundreds of microwatts (i.e. tenths of a milliwatt), which is a surprisingly large amount — it comparable to the solar cell on a calculator, for example. This should be more than enough power to drive complex computers — or perhaps more interestingly, trigger clusters of neurons in the brain. In theory, this glucose fuel cell will actually deprive your brain of some energy, though in practice you probably won't notice (or you might find yourself growing hungry sooner)."
Re:Unanswered Questions (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not opposed to cybernetic implants powered by the beer and pizza I already consume, but I sure want to know that the researchers and engineers did their homework first.
Nah, sounds more likely that the people who have spent however much of their lives on enough study/research to build this thing, all just failed to consider the simple potential problem you came up with in under 15 minutes. That sounds plausible, have a cookie.
There should be a -1 SPAM mod (Score:5, Insightful)
Please go spam somewhere else.
We will not buy your product because of spam.
There should be a -1 SPAM mod, which would take TWO points out of Karma.