We all have moments when our phones run out of charge; maybe just before an important call, while watching an important video or even when your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
Well, a team of researchers have discovered that you can charge your phone from tears!
Researchers from the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick (UL) in Ireland discovered that crystals of lysozyme, a model protein that is abundant in tears and saliva can generate electricity when pressed.
The ability to generate electricity by applying pressure, called piezoelectricity, is a property of materials such as quartz, which can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy, and vice versa.
"While piezoelectricity is used all around us, the capacity to generate electricity from this particular protein had not been explored," says Dr Aimee Stapleton, the lead author of the study and an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Fellow.
According to the researchers, the discovery may have wide-reaching applications and could lead to further research in energy harvesting and flexible electronics for biomedical devices.
Professor Luuk van der Wielen, director of Bernal Institute and Bernal Professor of Biosystems Engineering and Design, expressed his delight at this breakthrough by scientists at the University of Limerick.
“The Bernal Institute has the ambition to impact the world on the basis of top science in an increasingly international context.
"The impact of this discovery in the field of biological piezoelectricity will be huge and Bernal scientists are leading from the front the progress in this field,” he said.
It will be interesting to see how this discovery is put into practice and perhaps, your problems of low battery charge might after all be sorted from within.
