New Scientist TV: How to hack a snail to create a living battery
Dan Mikesell writes in Hacker Space Seoul- Open group: ‘this is some serious mad scientist hacking‘
In this exclusive video, you can watch how the animal was turned into a power source. Through slits cut in its shell, electrodes coated with enzymes are implanted in its body. Glucose and oxygen in the snail’s blood become fuel to generate electricity when the electrodes are hooked up to an external circuit.
Warning, a snail was probably hurt during the experiment.
Via Hacker Space Seoul- Open group
This entry was posted in hacks and tagged animal, hacks, power source.
Comments
Poor snail :(
This is appalling.
This is really sad. I’m not against animal testing if it helps treating serious health issues but any other animal abuse for scientific research is wrong.
I could never perform such tests nor would I allow them if I had any say in the matter.
Perfect for any SLOW power application!
BTW, poor snail…
That’s just wrong. When I first saw this post, I assumed it was going to be something like scooping up snail slime and converting it into electricity. Apparently I was wrong.
Not quite sure a get the point of it. This is the 21st Century right? We shouldn’t have to figure out how to get electricity from Snails, Lobsters, Lemons and Potatoes.
From the looks of it, the last few frames were a lobster. Very strange, but cool. Cutting a hole in the snails shell is like cutting your hair. There are no nerves in the shell.One more thing to note, this is in Seoul. Different cultures around the world eat different things and this snail very well could have been eaten after the video.I know I like escargot =P
Does this remind anyone of The Matrix? Big towers of snails… weird
Maybe they are trying to fit it with a LED so it would see in the dark :) joking aside, this is so wrong on so many levels…whats the point, electricity through grass..
And this is how the snail became a cyborg …
Good to know that when the zombie apocalypse comes, and you run out of batteries, you can still use snails to power your Arduino.
Please remove this video. It’s no fun!
How appalling it may seem, this is of course some form of research. Maybe they are using it to mount certain equipment on animals, like they do now, but now without a power source?
Maybe this can later be re-used for pace-makers to not need batteries?
I am also against animal testing and find this slightly offensive, but even so. Only vegans should really complain ;)