Living battery --- small body energy of snail

One-piece inductor

For the first time, American scientists have successfully implanted a biofuel cell into a snail to produce electricity during the months of life.

According to the British New Scientist magazine, people may not expect too much from the snails in the garden, but in fact these little guys can become "live batteries"! Evgeny Katz of the University of Clarkson in the United States and his team led the team to successfully implant a biofuel cell into a snail for the first time in a few months of life.

In this unique video, one can watch how the snail turns into a generator. Through the crack in the snail shell, the electrode coated with the enzyme is inserted into the body of the snail. The glucose and oxygen in the blood of the snail will become fuel to generate electricity, and the other end of the connecting electrode is connected to an external circuit.

The researchers' experimental video demonstrates this "powering snail", which produces 7 milliwatts of electricity. Although the amount of electrical energy output will decrease rapidly, feeding the snail can restore the "power supply" in a short time, or allow the snail to rest for half an hour to recharge.

Future live battery snails and other small animals are expected to power small devices such as environmental sensors, and Kaz and the research team are currently focusing on research in biomedical applications. A similar system can be used in the human body to power devices such as pacemakers implanted in the body to get rid of the reliance on batteries with limited life. Katz said: "The next step is to use an implanted bioelectrode to simulate human blood flow, which will complete a model fluid system."

Future scientists can also remotely control moths, observe other moths while they are flying, and help track odors.