

Electrical Power From Humans using Biofuel Cells - sunsu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15305579

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SoftwareMaven
One step closer to becoming cyborgs, and it makes me really excited!

I wonder if you could soak up extra calories with this, want to lose weight?
Charge your iPhone from your blood stream every day.

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DaniFong
This is absolutely a breakthrough in implant technology: of course, now the
question is, how long will they last in-vivo? Five years? Fuel cells can have
a foreshortened lifespan.

Also, an idea: perhaps such a battery could also be used for glucose
_regulation_ in diabetic patients. The current itself can be a glucose meter,
and by opening or closing micro-fluidic channels the machine could regulate
blood glucose much more accurately (and healthily) than the spikiness of
regular injections.

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shabble
I had an idea some time back about the possibility of isolating
Electrocytes[1] into a human biocompatible form, or creating some human
alternative that operates on the same principle.

I have no idea how plausible the idea is though, and is probably at least 2 or
3 major biological breakthroughs away.

Their major benefit, if my understanding is correct, is that you can scale
them quite extensively, in a similar fashion to building muscle tissues, to
gain more power. This would be invaluable for prosthetic limbs or high-power
internal devices like an artificial heart.

[1] The specialised cells used by electric eels to generate charge for their
shocking ability:
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Electric_orga...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Electric_organ#Electrocytes)

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mike_ivanov
How to retire early: implant a lot of these thingies and start producing
electricity for sale.

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icegreentea
Does anyone know how the body reacts to the charged glucose floating around?

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mrleinad
Please, can someone ship a copy of The Matrix to those scientists?

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steboknapp
But, lol, surgery is almost a right of passage for retired seniors. If their
pace makers didn't go out every five years, what would my grandparents look
forward to? :-/

