Is it true that scientists have learned to transform human stress into electricity?

According to the popular meme, scientists have learned to turn stress into electricity. Judging by the reactions of network users, many would also like to have a similar skill. And we checked whether this story has a true basis.

The meme has been walking on the Internet for several years. Its essence is as follows: first, the picture shows a photo of strange material and Russian or English-speaking title of news about scientists who learned to transform stress into electricity, and then-an image of any electric character from pop culture with a note “I”. It can be a god of thunder Thor From Marvel comics films, the emperor launching lightning Palpatine From Star Wars, Raiden From a series of Mortal Kombat games, as well as other heroes movie, anime And games. There are versions And simpler - Only with the heading and without a character.

Sometimes the material specially invented by scientists is mentioned in the headlines, and most often the name of the primary oriental site Interesting Engineering (“Interesting Engineering”) remains in the screenshots. In November 2017 there is really I went out An article called Scientists can Now Transform Stress Into Electricity (“Scientists can now transform stress into electricity”). But there is one nuance.

In the mechanics of the continuous environment exists physical quantity "mechanical stress" or in English Stress. Therefore, the heading of the news can be translated as follows: "Scientists can now convert mechanical voltage into electricity." Therefore, it was not about human stress, although the phrase outside the context could be understood so. In the subtitle of the text there is a special explanation: "Researchers from Switzerland created a material that produces electricity during twisting and stretching." And on the Phys.org website, to which they referred to the Interesting Engineering, Used The expression is whether - "with (mechanical) voltage." By the way, a photo with a sample used in terms of memes is also at that link.

Probably the author of the news notes specially wrote a clinical title, because in the first paragraph she joked about the superpowers: “If you do not have a superheli, then your stress probably does nothing but anxiety and tears. However, in 2017, scientists developed an organic material that can turn stress (or mechanical stress - approx. Ed.) Into electricity. ”

The material itself is a thin elastic film that functions due to the piezoelectric effect - process the occurrence of electrical polarization in the substance with elastic deformations (or under the influence of mechanical stress). That is, the essence is that the movement generates electricity. The new substance was created by the team from EMPA - the Swiss Federal Laboratory of Materials and Technology.

Since the film produces electricity for stretching and twisting, there were many potential options for its use: for example, to create pressure sensors, to develop a new type of control buttons, as well as sensitive skin for robots. The idea of ​​installing a film in clothes to observe the actions of the owner or to develop electricity from his movements was also mentioned.

In theory, this material could be used to obtain energy from the human body: the film could be implanted next to the heart to produce electricity from the heartbeat. For example, this would help to power a pacemaker in order to disappear the need to carry out operations to replace the battery.

However, scientists have not yet learned to carry out such installation operations. In addition, engineers from other universities and laboratories for several years Create their piezoelectric materials for charging pacemakers, and somewhere even Spended Animal tests.

It turns out that the meme is based on the real news, the title of which was incorrectly translated.

Image: Frame from the trailer for the film "Thor: Ragnarok"

Teared out of context

What do our verdicts mean?

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2. Phys.org. A Flexible Material that Generates Electricity When Stressed
3. The invented world of the Gekov public