Virus powered cars! Wait, what?

[Shakyjake]

Link to article

And for those whose link-clicking abilities are poor:

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered that bacterial viruses can be used to build cheap, powerful and biodegradable batteries. Scientists at MIT's Department of Material Sciences used the 'bacteriophage' virus - which is common and harmless to humans - to build the positive and negative sides of the battery.

Batteries work by turning chemical energy into electrochemical energy when an electrolyte flows between a positively charged cathode and a negatively charged anode. Using genetically engineered organic viruses for the cathode and anode, rather than toxic materials, is the breakthrough.

Talk about thinking outside of the box...

[Warhammer]

Thats insane. Whats next, cars running on human feces....

probably

[Halvgoeden]

Sounds like mistake #1 leading up to the zombie invasion.

[Senri]

The people at MIT are like a kid with a blender and a lot of weird food. You just try everything until it works well.

muffins plus milk = gross

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 11:11 AM, Warhammer wrote: Thats insane. Whats next, cars running on human feces....

probably

Haha, with a toilet instead of a driving seat...

Oh dear, I'm out of fuel... Oh well, these laxatives will help.

[CacheHelper]

Oh sure, it's harmless now... that's what they said when that gay scientiest came up with the first AIDS powered computer. Now look at us... can't even get or rocks off safely. :(

[Podburrys]

I was hoping this meant I could power my car on Spy-Ware and Rootkits; maybe even get an extra touch of speed with a Torjan. Alas, the REAL virus' ruin my scheme...

[AXOZ]

That's actually quite good. It would be awesome to have a virus-battery. How long would they hold untill they're empty?

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 11:16 AM, AXOZ wrote: That's actually quite good. It would be awesome to have a virus-battery. How long would they hold untill they're empty?

*shrug*

Same as a normal battery I suppose. They can only be recharged about 100 times before they're spent though. On the plus side, they're relatively cheap to manufacture so buying another one shouldn't cost much.

[joabos]

So they basically just went testing everything as a source of energy until it gave results?

They may not be practical, but damn they make good discoveries.

[Pounce]

Holy shit I want to be an engineer now

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 11:55 AM, joabos wrote: So they basically just went testing everything as a source of energy until it gave results?

They may not be practical, but damn they make good discoveries.

They just wandered around attaching LEDs to everything, and one lit up when they put it in some stilton...

[MarchelloBB]

They should figure out a way to turn cancer into food next

[BrockManson]

Virus eh? Wouyld HIV work? Will they start mining Africans for this virus fuel?

...I'm going to hell aren't I? =[

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 12:02 PM, MarchelloBB wrote: They should figure out a way to turn cancer into food next

Deep fried tumour anyone? You want malignant or benign?

[Craigie]

That guy has just earned my respect.. If only i knew who he was.

[XwaynecoltX]

lol thats sorta crazy, im still waiting on the flying car even after all the attempts

~X~

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 12:10 PM, XwaynecoltX wrote: lol thats sorta crazy, im still waiting on the flying car even after all the attempts

~X~

Just wait til my electromagnet-powered hover-train idea comes to fruition... you'll shit bricks...

[MarchelloBB]

At 4/3/09 12:12 PM, Shakyjake wrote:

At 4/3/09 12:10 PM, XwaynecoltX wrote: lol thats sorta crazy, im still waiting on the flying car even after all the attempts

~X~

Just wait til my electromagnet-powered hover-train idea comes to fruition... you'll shit bricks...

Or maybe he'll brick shits.

Wait... what?

[Steven-Polley]

My friend just sent me that article via msn. He probably read it here first. But still, I must admit, that is a huge breakthrough!

[CacheHelper]

At 4/3/09 12:19 PM, MarchelloBB wrote:

At 4/3/09 12:12 PM, Shakyjake wrote: Just wait til my electromagnet-powered hover-train idea comes to fruition... you'll shit bricks...

Or maybe he'll brick shits.

Shitting bricks is often times the side effect of dealing with too much electromagnatism... we'll probably all shit bricks.

[BigJimmy08]

am full of a cold but this baby purrs like a kitten ...lol

[tyguy920]

soon they'll have car running on nothing at all.

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 01:24 PM, tyguy920 wrote: soon they'll have car running on nothing at all.

No, that's impossible. Laws of Thermodynamics FTW!

At 4/3/09 12:54 PM, CacheHelper wrote: Shitting bricks is often times the side effect of dealing with too much electromagnatism... we'll probably all shit bricks.

Shitting bricks due to electromagnetism may be a side effect of too much iron in the diet...

[Model-98]

The proposal of using a bacterial virus to power a machine sounds useful, I shall store this data in my cache and use it in future experiments.

The only downside of this proposal is the fact that this battery can only be charged approximately 100 times, but this such problem is not large, because the battery lasts approximately the same time as a tank of fossil fuels, which brings me to the conclusion that the companty could make the batteries easy to replace, and give human gas stations such batteries, these gas stations could replace your virus battery for a small fee.

[xanez]

At 4/3/09 11:12 AM, Halvgoeden wrote: Sounds like mistake #1 leading up to the zombie invasion.

yeah, zombies will most likely happen when they start to engineer or make the viruses that power their cars.

[Pokemonpoeguygcn]

At 4/3/09 11:11 AM, Warhammer wrote: Thats insane. Whats next, cars running on human feces....

probably

Nah, the next thing will be jets powered by human urine

[molekh]

At 4/3/09 11:12 AM, Senri wrote: The people at MIT are like a kid with a blender and a lot of weird food. You just try everything until it works well.

muffins plus milk = gross

you're a moron

[WingCommand]

At 4/3/09 12:05 PM, Shakyjake wrote:

At 4/3/09 12:02 PM, MarchelloBB wrote: They should figure out a way to turn cancer into food next

Deep fried tumour anyone? You want malignant or benign?

I'll take two brain tumors and one pancreatic cancers. Well done, please.

[Shakyjake]

At 4/3/09 03:47 PM, WingCommand wrote: I'll take two brain tumors and one pancreatic cancers. Well done, please.

Ok, I'll fire up the microwave.

It's funny cos microwaves give you cancer