Saturday, October 7, 2017

Scientists Can Now Harvest Electricity From Your Tears

This news comes out of Ireland which somehow seems appropriate.
From the Irish Times, Oct. 2:

Irish scientists unlock how to make electricity from tears
UL research may ultimately provide alternative way to control drug release into body
Because it is a biological material it is non-toxic and could have innovative applications involving medical implants, said Tipperary scientist and lead author of the research findings, Aimee Stapleton.
“Crystals of lysozyme are easy to make from natural sources,” she added.

Prof Tewfik Soulimane, report co-author, said although the protein’s structure has been known about since 1965, “we are the first to use these crystals to show the evidence of piezoelectricity”....MORE
 Here's the University of Limerick press release at EurekAlert.
And the paper at Applied Physics Letters.

The "appropriate" line relates to the introduction to a 2015 post:
I once had a very learned gentleman tell me there are four types of drunks.
His categories were:

Verbose
Morose
Lachrymose
Comatose
The learned gentleman was very, very proudly Irish and a keen observer of the human condition.
See also Heraclitus.