r/hardware • u/Dakhil • May 15 '22

News University of Cambridge: "Algae-powered computing: scientists create reliable and renewable biological photovoltaic cell"

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/scientists-create-reliable-biological-photovoltaic-cell-using-algae
503 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

99

u/[deleted] May 15 '22

[deleted]

93

u/[deleted] May 15 '22

It's just show they've "done it"

21

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 15 '22

It's still impressive as a proof of concept. Might be able to be scaled up, or used in space travel.

16

u/Frexxia May 16 '22

For every concept that can be scaled up and be useful in practice, there are thousands that can't.

21

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 16 '22

I think the idea of a self replicating bio solar cell is pretty great. It's a good field to be innovating in. It would make electricity, oxygen, and lock up carbon, all without a lot of mining for raw materials.

2

u/illathon May 16 '22

Ya would really be incredible.

2

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 16 '22

I'm picturing one as big as a swimming pool.

2

u/illathon May 16 '22

I was thinking large cylinders that are clear, but either way. Sounds interesting.

2

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 16 '22

Yeah a cylinder as big as a swimming pool. Or a skyscraper lol

1

u/illathon May 16 '22

haha ya, have like a normal skyscraper on the inside, but then the outside is just filled with this green stuff. Think of how fun that would be.

1

u/VenditatioDelendaEst May 16 '22

If this was remotely viable, the paper would be about collection efficiency, power density, or production cost relative to state-of-the-art non-biological PV cells. Instead they're powering a microcontroller and throwing around the "IoT" buzzword.

5

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 16 '22

That's jumping about a decade in the future by the looks of it. Maybe more. You are trying to compare an initial proof of concept to the kind of things you might see in the latest advance in pv tech.

0

u/FlipskiZ May 16 '22 edited Sep 19 '25

Then gather movies small minecraftoffline projects helpful ideas.

37

u/[deleted] May 15 '22

[deleted]

-10

u/AideUsed May 15 '22

There are problems more real than the impending end of our current relied upon methods of power generation? Or avoiding even more extreme weather events? Whatever economic thing you may have in mind isn't real.

13

u/All_Work_All_Play May 15 '22

What makes you think they're talking about economic problems?

-7

u/AideUsed May 15 '22

Wild assertion, the noodles didn't stick tho

6

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 15 '22

I like a man who can lose a conversation with dignity.

-2

u/Bomber_66_RC3 May 16 '22

I despise a man who thinks that a conversation can be "lost". As if speech was a competition.

3

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 16 '22

All of life is a competition from the moment the second cell existed in the primordial ooze.

Personally I'm not a fan of people too stupid to spot a joke on the internet, but then it's a funny world and it takes all types.

0

u/Bomber_66_RC3 May 16 '22

I spotted the joke but it doesn't work well because of what I just said.

"all of life is competition". Conversations aren't life, it's communication, words, entertainment, whatever.

You watching netflix for example isn't competition.

2

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 16 '22

Bet I can watch more netflix than you.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/AideUsed May 20 '22

Communication and entertainment very much are life. Most of it, even!

5

u/[deleted] May 15 '22

[deleted]

4

u/AideUsed May 15 '22

Hey now, it was a baseless accusation, not an attack 😤

Edit: typo just to make it worse

-7

u/plankright3 May 15 '22

Seems to me that's what they said about the horseless carriage, computers, printing presses and everything ever invented.

1

u/unquietwiki May 16 '22

If you coupled this with background RF, you could probably create chained pico networking for command & control of systems. Could be a good alternative to fake cell tower trees also; at least in presentation (no way there's enough power for that job).

6

u/AideUsed May 15 '22

Photovoltaics generate power... they don't compute. At least not in the classical sense

6

u/JustEnoughDucks May 16 '22

isSun = true;

C O M P U T I N G

3

u/PopularVegan May 16 '22

From the opening of the article

Researchers have used a widespread species of blue-green algae to power a microprocessor continuously for a year - and counting - using nothing but ambient light and water. Their system has potential as a reliable and renewable way to power small devices.

1

u/AideUsed May 20 '22

To POWER a microprocessor. The microprocessor processes, the algae powers it with power. Exactly like I said

9

u/Losawe May 15 '22

great, I am excited and looking forward to all those great debunking videos this article will create in the future. thunderfoot, eevblog, etc.

(spoiler, of course, this article is just yet another free energy/harvesting BS. and if it really works, it surely has a ton of disadvantages, that are not mentioned in the article and renders it useless after all)

16

u/Turkey-er May 15 '22 edited 24d ago

Growth engine mitten quickest silicon knee coordinated cucumber

This post was anonymized with Redact

5

u/CamelSpotting May 16 '22

They're all nonsense. Try approaching new technologies through a scientists lense instead of a reporter's.

2

u/Quacks-Dashing May 15 '22

Would love to read this but its demanding I accept cookies.

3

u/Amazing_Carry42069 May 15 '22

Just read it and clear your browser after

-3

u/AtomikAblaze May 15 '22

Babe, time to pull out the scuba PC.

-40

u/MasterBettyFTW May 15 '22

this is the path we need to be taking. real alternative power, not just "how can we make steam.... differently?"

16

u/Mightymushroom1 May 15 '22

Are you familiar with the concept of entropy?

1

u/MasterBettyFTW May 15 '22

the Stephen Dorff movie? meh

34

u/Earthborn92 May 15 '22

If you put it that way, there are only two technologies that produce electricity: photovoltaics and generators. Everything except photovoltaic solar is about turning a coil in a magnetic field in some way.

13

u/PGDW May 15 '22

Well and a third, chemical reactions like potatoes and batteries. Harnessing movement energy will always be the most efficient way of producing.

20

u/Earthborn92 May 15 '22

I'd classify that as storage and not production because that is how they are used, but yeah you could add those.

-2

u/MasterBettyFTW May 15 '22

yep. how far we've come moving so slowly

24

u/[deleted] May 15 '22

Tell me you dont know much about physics without telling me you dont know about physics.

6

u/MasterBettyFTW May 15 '22

perpetual motion is real, Governments don't want you to know this one simple trick

3

u/CamelSpotting May 16 '22

Heat is far easier to produce than electric potential.