[HN Gopher] Algae powers computer for a year using only light an... ___________________________________________________________________ Algae powers computer for a year using only light and water Author : geox Score : 24 points Date : 2023-07-08 18:45 UTC (4 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.anthropocenemagazine.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.anthropocenemagazine.org) | berbec wrote: | currently hugged. | https://web.archive.org/web/20220624095811/https://www.anthr... | westurner wrote: | From the (archived) article: | | > _In the new work published in Energy & Environmental Science, | researchers at Cambridge University harnessed algae's ability | to produce electricity during photosynthesis. They put blue- | green algae, also called cyanobacteria, into a see-through case | made of plastic and aluminum. Then they placed it on a | windowsill and connected it to the microprocessor, which they | had programmed to run for cycles of 45 minutes followed by 15 | minutes of rest._ | | "Powering a microprocessor by photosynthesis" (2022) | https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/ee/d2ee0... | : | | > Abstract: _Sustainable, affordable and decentralised sources | of electrical energy are required to power the network of | electronic devices known as the Internet of Things. Power | consumption for a single Internet of Things device is modest, | ranging from mW to mW, but the number of Internet of Things | devices has already reached many billions and is expected to | grow to one trillion by 2035, requiring a vast number of | portable energy sources (e.g., a battery or an energy | harvester). Batteries rely largely on expensive and | unsustainable materials (e.g., rare earth elements) and their | charge eventually runs out. Existing energy harvesters (e.g., | solar, temperature, vibration) are longer lasting but may have | adverse effects on the environment (e.g., hazardous materials | are used in the production of photovoltaics). Here, we describe | a bio-photovoltaic energy harvester system using photosynthetic | microorganisms on an aluminium anode that can power an Arm | Cortex M0+, a microprocessor widely used in Internet of Things | applications. The proposed energy harvester has operated the | Arm Cortex M0+ for over six months in a domestic environment | under ambient light. It is comparable in size to an AA battery, | and is built using common, durable, inexpensive and largely | recyclable materials._ | | How many wh/kg/cm3? | extrememacaroni wrote: | what _should_ a website do to not get hugged? | MobiusHorizons wrote: | Be less interesting? Seriously though, for static content | like an article, caching and cdn's can handle fairly large | traffic. | thephyber wrote: | Hugged is an euphemism that describes when demand is higher | than supply for server/bandwidth resources. | | Solution: increase supply and/or reduce demand. | | Reducing the dynamic content (reduce the number of HTTP | requests and the time taken for the server to respond to each | request) goes a long way, but CDNs are good for increasing | supply if that is ultimately necessary. | aaron695 wrote: | [dead] | seeknotfind wrote: | How much actual energy does it produce? | causality0 wrote: | A third of a microwatt. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-07-08 23:00 UTC)