Scientists Use a Cockroach to Make Electricity, a la Matrix

Well this is a bit creepy: researchers at Case Western Reserve University have successfully managed to turn a cockroach into a battery.

The research relies on a Cockroach’s diet. As a cockroach eats, it produces trehalose, a complex sugar. An anode is introduced into the cockroach’s gut, coated in an enzyme that breaks the trehalose down into two simpler sugars. These are then broken down again by another enzyme so that the electrons bound up in the sugars are set free, which then rush toward the cathode, completing the circuit. Its a bit like how a diabetic’s glucometer works, but in the gut of a living thing.

The amount of energy being generated by the process is still exceedingly small; only 100 microwatts of energy at .3 volts were produced. But this is a tech demo, nothing more. This is the first time that energy has been derived from a living thing like this.

Why cockroaches? Professor Roy E. Ritzmann, who led the experiment, explains:

"Insects have an open circulatory system so the blood is not under much pressure, so, unlike say a vertebrate, where if you pushed a probe into a vein or worse an artery (which is very high pressure) blood does not come out at any pressure. So, basically, this is really pretty benign. In fact, it is not unusual for the insect to right itself and walk or run away afterward."

As freaky as the technology may seem, it actually does bode well for the human race. One of the major problems with electronics in the body (like, say, pacemakers and any future human augmentations) is that they need batteries. Current pacemakers use highly efficient, but quite massive battery packs to power themselves. These have to be changed once their voltage drops below a certain level, necessitating surgery. Being able to draw power from the human body negates this.

Or, for a benign example of where the technology might eventually go, imagine a small inductive charger on the back of your wrist. Rather than a watch having a battery, it charges from the current of your own body.

If this technology takes off, then we might see many, many interesting applications down the road.

But first, we need to up the power generated. And move on to humans.

Gizmodo Photo by : babbagecabbage