Taking the Piss: Harnessing the Power of Urine

Story here. Talk about your alternative energy! British scientists have found a way to charge cellphones using human urine, generating enough electricity to send a text message and surf the Web, not to mention make a call.

Of course, they’re not just pissing on the phones … although being British, I don’t doubt they tried that. :wink: They put the urine through “a cascade of microbial fuel cells.”

Should eventually have applications for areas without electricity.

You’ll be able to use your phone to post on Wikileaks. It’s not exactly green energy. Yellow, really.

Will Apple introduce their new P-Phone?

Wouldn’t that be the iP-Phone?

You could make a urine-powered game console: The Pii. And you wouldn’t have to pause the game after downing two Mountain Dews.

We had a couple of threads that addressed claims of pee power generation last year. I started one:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=674077&highlight=urine+power

I haven’t read the new articles, but the old ones were about a “generator” that actually produced less energy than was put into it one way or another. as I wrote at the time:

this article does seemn to be using a different method, so maybe it is getting a net gain. But i wouldn’t hold my breath. Or maybe I should.