Energy from Grapes

shpoffo writes "This article at BetterHumans.com talks about harvesting energy from grapes - enough to power small microchips that could be implanted in/attached to plants for monitoring/etc. Seems like it's just a piece of the larger picture emerging..."

Does this mean

[immanis]

In the future I can have a Night Train powered computer?

WOW! It's just like me!

Course, it would prolly crash a lot.

An excellent use for RFID!

[Nathan Ramella]

You could tag each grape, and then monitor them for quality and choose only the best ones for making wine, while also making sure nobody removes them from the vine without authorization.

You could then track the grape through the wine making process, and once they're crushed all down you could gather up all the RFID/computer chips at the bottom of the barrel, and go through the process again.

Oh, no wait. That's a terrible idea.

Re:An excellent use for RFID!

[elmegil]

Mmmm, metal wine.

Re:An excellent use for RFID!

[MeanMF]

You could tag each grape, and then monitor them for quality and choose only the best ones for making wine

Digital ripes management?

(Sorry)

Ironic timing

[nelsonal]

The expermentors tried grasshoppers and other insects, silly people should already have learned that it takes humans to produce any reasonable amount of energy.

Re:Ironic timing

[Zurk]

The grape biofuel cell consists of two carbon electrodes thinner than a hair, a few centimeters long and a few millimeters apart. Light and cheap, they cost just a few cents to make.
The cell derives power from the metabolism of glucose and oxygen, the energy-generating mechanism in all plant and animal cells.
In metabolism, electrons are transferred from glucose to oxygen. In a biofuel cell, they flow through a circuit between one electrode and another, generating electricity in the process. The cells work b

But...

[Sloppy]

..if we do that, might not the grapes eventually wise up and resent it? We should do something to distract the grapes -- somehow pull the wool over their eyes.

Re:But...

[shaitand]

Grapes are living beings too! Have you never considered THEIR rights and FEELINGS???!! Some people are so barbaric.

Enter the vineyard

[ichimunki]

But what happens when the grapes wake up to the reality that they're basically slaves, serving as batteries for human kind?

Re:Enter the vineyard

[Sloppy]

Nobody can be told what the vinyard is.

"I should have photosynthesized the blue ray!"

Re:Enter the vineyard

[Polo]

What happens? They'll w(h)ine

Noooooo!

[clambake]

Now i've got images of the California rasin characters in latex singing "I heard it through the grapevine" in bullet-time.

Re:Enter the vineyard

[gurps_npc]

Then a new grape will arise, and conquer the network by defeating software programs built into the network whose sole pupose is to act as distractions, then flying around.

So in other words

[n1ywb]

this is just a glorified potato clock.

Re:So in other words

[L. VeGas]

Potato clocks, energy grapes. What next? Musical beans?

Re:So in other words

[Marillion]

You should be able to extract caffine energy from all those Java Beans. Right?

Re:So in other words

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

this is just a glorified potato clock.
That was my first impression too -- stick copper and zinc wires into a grape and you get electricity -- but that's not what they're doing. The article is light on details, but using a pair of carbon rods (insert Simpsons ref here) they're digesting glucose and collecting a few microwatts as a product.

+1 Insightful? -1 wet-blanket-in-a-+1-Funny-thread?

--

Re:So in other words

[Anonymous Coward]

from what i gathered they aren't actually using the carbon rods for digesting anything, but just as conductors for the transferring of electrons which takes places in the mitochondria

Cool! Next they will...

[Hell O'World]

Next they will be extracting energy from humans! We could plug them into giant towers, and feed their brains with sensations of the world before the apocolypse!

But

[aufecht]

Wait, I thought we were harvesting energy from Humans. I saw this movie, and....this is confusing.

I've been doing this for years!

[svenjob]

I've been getting energy from grapes for years! And by energy, I mean drunk. ;)

so now...

[mattsucks]

Now your grapes can have bugs ... and bugs ...

Must be sweet grapes

[kawika]

As the article mentions, the power generation depends on glucose. So if you're not getting enough power, it's just sour grapes.

Ah, so...

[Randym]

Heller and his team aim to get it working in insects and small animals, but trials with grasshoppers have so far been unsuccessful.

This gives a whole new meaning to, "Ah,so, grasshopper -- you wish to be enlightened..."

We have been slaves to grapes for centuries!

[CokoBWare]

Where do you think the term wine-o comes from? We're just getting them back for taking all the energy we've spent getting plastered on them. I predict that in the future, we will have grape-powered machines growing people who will power more machines to create a virtual world humans believe they have a great time drinking wine!

Despite all the Matrix jokes...

[Pall Agamemnides]

... this article [indiatimes.com] talks about using this sort of device in humans:

Capable of producing only about 2.4 microwatts, the biofuel cell could be used to derive power from body fluids. For instance, it could also drive a tiny, autonomous sensor implanted near a wound after surgery to sense fluctuations in body temperature that might signal inflammation and infection.

It seems like a useful application.

doesn't surprise me...

[Edward Scissorhands]

Don Cherry definitely blows a lot of hot air! We could use that gas to power our cities. Yay for Grapes!

Grown...

[JonoPlop]

Be careful, grapes will no longer be born, they will be grown. Oh, wait...

Quick, if you want to live, make for the landline.

[gurps_npc]

And call 1800-555-SPAM PORN There I will extract your grape from the vine.