We have read, heard, as well as seen how our planet is in peril due to the ways of us humans, and right now, you can say that there has been steps taken in several directions to ensure that the planet does not end up as a toxic dump, where it will no longer be able to sustain life as we know it. Cars are getting more efficient, and so too, is the energy consumption of many an electrical appliance. Researchers at Columbia University have come up with a method to harvest energy from the rather imperceptible process of water evaporation.
The amount of energy harvested will then be able to be translated to power really small machines. Thanks to Ozgur Sahin and his team, they discovered how select bacterial spores are able to absorb water, before expanding and then shrinking down as they dry.
Sahin mentioned that this “process is very similar to a muscle movement”, where the combined force of billions of such spores would result in a tiny – albeit measurable force, where activation of such force would require a teeny bit of moist air, that is all.
Hence, the “evaporation engines” as the team calls it, where it can use the energy harvested to actually drive a wheel or even move along a table, now how about that?