Teenager Invents Cheap Solar Panel From Human Hair 366
Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world's energy needs. A solar panel made from human hair. The hair replaces silicon, a pricey component typically used in solar panels, and means the panels can be produced at a low cost for those with no access to power. The solar panel, which produces 9 volts (18 watts) of energy, costs around $38 US (£23) to make from raw materials. Gentlemen, start your beards. The future of hair farming is here!
Everyday (Score:3, Insightful)
The world gets a little weirder...
Re:It's green... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyday (Score:3, Insightful)
Scams are older than the human species.
The world doesn't get weirder, although I wonder if it gets more gullible...
I think there is a 9V battery in that contraption, going by voltage reader.
Has anyone managed to duplicate the results? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is really ridiculous.
The pictures show a few strands of hair. A few questions come to mind:
(1) Hair is not conductive. How can hair produce electricity if it can't conduct electrons worth a darn?
(2) Hair is not polarized-- it's the same all the way through and throughout its length. How can there be any potential difference set up across something uniform?
(3) The amount of hair shown captures maybe 0.1 cm^2 of sunlight. Even if it had 100% efficiency, that would only be 1/100th of one watt. How could it be lighting up a 5-watt fluorescent lamp with that?
Everything about this story sounds major-league bogus.
Rule of thumb with the Daily Mail (Score:2, Insightful)
If the Daily Mail headline is "Could X do/cause/be Y?", the answer is almost certainly "No".
Re:It's green... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's free for the taking because as of yet there is no value to freshly cut hair (unless it's long enough to make a wig out of). Even though this article has an overwhelming stench of bullshit, if it were true and human hair became an energy source, the price of that hair would rise dramatically. "Goldilocks" would take on a whole new meaning...
Re:9V != 18W (Score:3, Insightful)
It is barely possible that he kluged up something that puts out 9 volts into the extremely high impedence of a digital voltmeter. The rest is bullshit, perhaps originated by the same doofus who thinks that a watt is a unit of energy.
Re:This isn't cheap... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's an incomplete story. What we need to know to evaluate cost is A. life expectancy, and B. W/m^2. A solar panel that produces the same wattage for a price comparable to some of the higher density solar panels (IIRC) is cool if it lasts at least as long and has similar density. Otherwise, the replacement costs or the shipping costs and installation footprint make it more expensive, respectively.
Re:9V != 18W (Score:5, Insightful)
The conductivity of hair is very low. I know this because I have inadvertently applied 600 V between 3/4" of hair and my (thankfully dry and unsweaty) skull, yet I live to type about it. The possibility of a hair solar cell is, in my oh-so-humble opinion, exceedingly unlikely.
However, I was [for once] inspired to RTFA.
Re:9V != 18W (Score:2, Insightful)
well, as Borat said..... (Score:3, Insightful)
.....We can at last import energy from kazhakistan!!!!!! [youtube.com]
Re:9V != 18W (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why don't people with ponytails (Score:3, Insightful)
Honestly, I think people who associated "short hair = manly" (after wars of XIX and first half of XX century, where shaving was an effective way of supressing diseases without access to sanitation; when millions of young, shawed pawns in hands of rulers were coming back they suddenly became hero veterans...just for being pawns) should mind their own business.
Really, I can't believe how so many woman were scammed into this "model" of manhood - one that disguises poor personal hygiene, diseases and genetic disorders. Body hair is a very obvious giveaway if any of those things are lacking (not if you shave them of course), a very useful thing for a female when selecting a male. Historically, mainly cultures lacking in those areas preferred shaving...because they couldn't get healthy looking hair anyway.
Dilemmas! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like free electricity, but I really hoped to write a successful computer language some day. What to do?
A more plausible explanation (Score:2, Insightful)
Alright, so everyone's probably been right so far that stringing a few strands of hair across a grid of thumbtacks probably won't light a CFL. Here's what probably happened: the kid made a device and showed that it can collect sunlight. Using a few rudimentary calculations, he scaled up his results to show that a working model with about a pound of hair would give something on the order of 18 watts of power (in full sunlight). The Daily Mail pounced on it because they don't know any better. And voila! Sensationalized story. That doesn't mean it can't be done. I'd say we should feel cautiously optimistic about this story and look at the science behind it as opposed to focusing on what the news agency said about it. As we all know, news agencies are notoriously bad scientists.
Also, if melanin is the key to hair having semiconductive properties, doesn't this mean...ah nevermind, how about just 'Insert blond joke here.'
Re:9V != 18W (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyday - Scams (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what I thought too.
The chances of this being both real AND viable if developed in the best labs of Japan, Germany, Korea, or the US would be slim to none.
The chances of being developed by a kid from a village with no electricity are astronomically small. (Here is where I get modded troll for showing a western bias. So be it.)
Everybody up-thread is debating ohm's law and assorted fine points while failing to notice the 800 pound gorilla looking over their shoulder. Do these people thing materials research would have missed this attribute of hair? These things are not done by chance any more like Edison tinkering in his lab and jerking whiskers out of a passing cat trying to develop a filament for a light bulb. You need a material that has certain properties, you key it into the computer and out pops all the candidates, the good, the bad, and the ridiculous, all rated on any number of scales you wish.
A little skepticism goes a long way.
Can anyone duplicate this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:awesome (Score:3, Insightful)
Careful you don't nick the plastic with the razor or all of the air will escape.