Ear Power

Taking power for a living organism is not a new thing for scientists and researchers to do but recently they have discovered how to take the inner ear of a guinea pig and use it for energy and sensory purposes.  Usually scientists use enzymes to transform catalytic energy into electric energy but this new way apparently just "steals" energy that the body produces by itself.  The cochlea of the inner ear converts sound pressure waves into electrical waves that are sent to the brain so you can process what it is you are hearing.  The new chip that the scientists came up with just takes out that electrical energy without disturbing the hearing of the organism.

Scientists from Harvard and MIT connected electrodes to the fluids in the cochlea.  They connected these electrodes to small sensors right outside the guinea pigs ear and took about 1 nanowatt.  These sensors are small enough to put in humans but the energy extracted is not enough to power a device to help with deafness.  Scientists have previously been using biofuel cells, creating energy from blood glucose but this energy doesn't last forever like the energy from the ear would.  The ultimate goal is to gain knowledge about how and why people have deafness and possibly to help cure the diseases of the ear.