Solar-powered mice – new man’s best friend
When it comes to predicting how Earth would look like hundreds of years from now, there are two schools of thought dominating the field of science. First are the conservatives who believe global warming, exhaustion of fuel cells, and destruction of the environment will ultimately lead to our extinction. The second group is the liberals, who think that Homo Sapiens are far too advanced to let these things end their existence – they maintain that we’ll be able to come up with scientific methods to clear pollution, produce alternatives for energy, or if all else fails, create a colony of our own outer space.
We’re neither fans of human extinction nor are we narcissistic fools, but this latest technological wonder from Netherlands can further fan the flames of that debate.
The folks over at the Delft University of Technology has come up with a solar-powered mouse (not live ones silly, we’re talking about computer peripherals here). According to the press release they issued, Sole Mio was designed to be used by anyone with access to sunlight, or even artificial light. The technology behind this product enables it to charge power from sources of light, making it available for the owner’s usage. Here’s a text from the press release:
With solar energy, under ideal circumstances charging can occur a factor of five times quicker than in the current situation. Over time it is estimated that several hundred million batteries could be saved annually on a global scale. The net environmental benefit is still restricted by the high energy content of current PV cells. However the introduction of new types of cheap and energy-extensive PV cells, on which TU Delft and partners are working, would eventually yield an even higher environmental gain.
So they’re looking into making this more environment friendly in the long run. Is this then the first step towards what the liberal wing in science believes as the next stage of man’s evolution? Can humans actually create ways to destroy the planet and save itself at the same time?
Wake me up from cryostasis when a solar-powered race is in charge of the planet.
Via Ecogeek
When it comes to predicting how Earth would look like hundreds of years from now, there are two schools of thought dominating the field of science. First are the conservatives who believe global warming, exhaustion of fuel cells, and destruction of the environment will ultimately lead to our extinction. The second group is the liberals, who think that Homo Sapiens are far too advanced to let these things end their existence – they maintain that we’ll be able to come up with scientific methods to clear pollution, produce alternatives for energy, or if all else fails, create a colony of our own outer space.
We’re neither fans of human extinction nor are we narcissistic fools, but this latest technological wonder from Netherlands can further fan the flames of that debate.
The folks over at the Delft University of Technology has come up with a solar-powered mouse (not live ones silly, we’re talking about computer peripherals here). According to the press release they issued, Sole Mio was designed to be used by anyone with access to sunlight, or even artificial light. The technology behind this product enables it to charge power from sources of light, making it available for the owner’s usage. Here’s a text from the press release:
With solar energy, under ideal circumstances charging can occur a factor of five times quicker than in the current situation. Over time it is estimated that several hundred million batteries could be saved annually on a global scale. The net environmental benefit is still restricted by the high energy content of current PV cells. However the introduction of new types of cheap and energy-extensive PV cells, on which TU Delft and partners are working, would eventually yield an even higher environmental gain.
So they’re looking into making this more environment friendly in the long run. Is this then the first step towards what the liberal wing in science believes as the next stage of man’s evolution? Can humans actually create ways to destroy the planet and save itself at the same time?
Wake me up from cryostasis when a solar-powered race is in charge of the planet.
Via Ecogeek
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