In case you were not aware yet, let us tell you that humanity is facing a huge problem: we need more and more energy. The problem is that this comes from resources that are finite as such and are also extracted from the subsoil and pollute, making the problem worse. The first step is to generate green energy through the different forces of nature by accumulating that energy in batteries, but the evolution of this is already underway and will be self-sustaining.
The PC and processor that feeds on the energy of a living organism such as algae
Photosynthesis, that chemical process by which plants and many living things use the sun’s energy to feed themselves and generate their own energy with it for their cells. Well, the system created uses it through a non-toxic algae called Syneschocystiswhich manages to generate an electric current that interacts with an aluminum electrode and with which an ARM processor is fed.
In addition, this new breed of PC is self-sustaining through the use of common, inexpensive and recyclable materials, which is why it has created the Cambridge University Department of Biochemistry It is something really shocking. Professor Christopher Howe explains it very well:
“The growing Internet of Things needs an ever-increasing amount of power, and we think it will have to come from systems that can generate power, rather than simply storing it as batteries. Our photosynthetic device does not run out like a battery does because it continuously uses light as a source of energy. Equally, we were impressed with how consistently the system worked over a long period of time; we thought it might stop after a few weeks, but kept working«
This kind of PC had a very curious processor, a ARM Cortex M0+ to his credit, surely the most used for the IoT, so with all that said we could be facing the most important change in the chip industry in history, but how do they do it?
No external power, just need sunlight
The alga in question does not need food of any kind, it creates its own food thanks to photosynthesis, but perhaps the most incredible thing is that in a large part of this process the organism does not need sunlight, that is, it continues to produce energy during the periods without lightusually at night.
Therefore, energy is produced almost 24 hours a day because the algae continues to produce the energy needed to power the system. Therefore, if this can be stabilized and scaled up in production, at least for the most basic chips, we would be facing systems and PCs powered by algae with practically infinite energy, or at least in the long term.
The research began with studies on the use of networks and chips in the future and since everything has a limit, it was concluded that it would not be sustainable. The reasons for this statement are decisive, since said study states that powering trillions of IoT devices with lithium-ion batteries is not feasible, since it would take three more times of this material that is produced annually throughout the world.
Therefore, we may be approaching the edge of a technological cliff, since like the economy, it can never go up and will slow down or slow down at some point.
