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Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

newscientist.com

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Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#51

Post by tetris11 »

Maursault wrote: post #47
LoveMortuus wrote: post #4

> The computer ran in cycles of 45 minutes of calculating sums of consecutive integers to simulate a computational workload, which required 0.3 microwatts of power, and 15 minutes of standby, which required 0.24 microwatts. The computer itself measured the current output from the device and this data was stored in the cloud for researchers to analyse. > Christopher Howe at the University of Cambridge and his colleagu…

Thank you for the accurate and concise summary of what I wanted to know, but I think that this has larger implications that has nothing to do with computers or algae. As you observed, that is really not a lot of power. And off I go... it is incredible that that is not a lot of power, iow, what can be achieved optimizing for low-power is nothing short of miraculous, and we as a global society... we should suck it up,…

I keep looking for, and failing to find, any metrics that suggest that GPUs or CPUs have gotten more efficient and less energy intensive over time. Simple intuition would suggest "yes, obviously, of course", but I would love to see a simple line graph indicating so. Toms Hardware seems like a good place to look, but their comparisons dont overlap backwards very far

Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#52

Post by ryankrage77 »

ars wrote: post #50
phyalow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember running a calculator via a potato battery when I was much younger.

Just in case you don't know: The energy to power your calculator did not come from the potato. It came from the metals you used in the potato. The metals are slowly oxidizing and that reaction (a kind of burning) produces the energy. The same thing is happening here - it's not the algae producing energy, it's the metal anode and cathode.

Did you read the article?

> "Because the experiment ran without any significant degrading of the anode the researchers believe that the cyanobacteria are producing the bulk of the current."

Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#53

Post by hoseja »

ryankrage77 wrote: post #52
ars wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case you don't know: The energy to power your calculator did not come from the potato. It came from the metals you used in the potato. The metals are slowly oxidizing and that reaction (a kind of burning) produces the energy. The same thing is happening here - it's not the algae producing energy, it's the metal anode and cathode.

Did you read the article? > "Because the experiment ran without any significant degrading of the anode the researchers believe that the cyanobacteria are producing the bulk of the current."

How was this quantified? How much degradation would be expected if the amount of power were to be drawn from the equivalent battery without algae?

Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#54

Post by LoveMortuus »

tetris11 wrote: post #51
Maursault wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the accurate and concise summary of what I wanted to know, but I think that this has larger implications that has nothing to do with computers or algae. As you observed, that is really not a lot of power. And off I go... it is incredible that that is not a lot of power, iow, what can be achieved optimizing for low-power is nothing short of miraculous, and we as a global society... we should suck it up,…

I keep looking for, and failing to find, any metrics that suggest that GPUs or CPUs have gotten more efficient and less energy intensive over time. Simple intuition would suggest "yes, obviously, of course", but I would love to see a simple line graph indicating so. Toms Hardware seems like a good place to look, but their comparisons dont overlap backwards very far

I think they have gotten more efficient. Just by the fact that pretty much every laptop today has a much better battery life then any had many years ago. Of course the difference is also in the battery tech, but the change and improvement is still visible.

Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#55

Post by ars »

ryankrage77 wrote: post #52
ars wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case you don't know: The energy to power your calculator did not come from the potato. It came from the metals you used in the potato. The metals are slowly oxidizing and that reaction (a kind of burning) produces the energy. The same thing is happening here - it's not the algae producing energy, it's the metal anode and cathode.

Did you read the article? > "Because the experiment ran without any significant degrading of the anode the researchers believe that the cyanobacteria are producing the bulk of the current."

I read the article. I saw what they said and I do not believe them for the following reasons:

1: Looking at an anode and saying "yup not corroded" is not how you check such things.

2: If they actually wanted to check it, there are several methods, they did none of them. They include: Weighing it, killing the algae and seeing if the power output changes, trying other metals for the anodes, trying other plants instead of algae in the water.

3: If you put salt water between two anodes you will get electricity. Period. If they claim this didn't happen, and "the algae did it", you're going to have to posit some method for the algae to prevent this, while substituting their own electricity. This will require new chemistry.

4: Algae are non-polar, so I don't see how they can direct the positive and negative current toward the proper anode to make electricity.

Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#57

Post by gorgonical »

ars wrote: post #55
ryankrage77 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the article? > "Because the experiment ran without any significant degrading of the anode the researchers believe that the cyanobacteria are producing the bulk of the current."

I read the article. I saw what they said and I do not believe them for the following reasons: 1: Looking at an anode and saying "yup not corroded" is not how you check such things. 2: If they actually wanted to check it, there are several methods, they did none of them. They include: Weighing it, killing the algae and seeing if the power output changes, trying other metals for the anodes, trying other plants instead…

I have read the paper. They showed photosensitivity by both autoclaving the sample and adding DMCU to prevent photosynthesis. Both reduced power production. They do suggest a component of power production is related to electrolytic activity because they observe a dark setting power production; under a light setting the power production nearly doubles.

They also discuss the possibility that the algae are just promoting the oxidation of the aluminum, but do a series of assays I don't fully understand and conclude that some of the current produced is most likely from the algae themselves.

Link to paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2022/ee/d2ee0023...

Re: Computer powered by colony of blue-green algae has run for six months

#58

Post by dmos62 »

tetris11 wrote: post #51
Maursault wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the accurate and concise summary of what I wanted to know, but I think that this has larger implications that has nothing to do with computers or algae. As you observed, that is really not a lot of power. And off I go... it is incredible that that is not a lot of power, iow, what can be achieved optimizing for low-power is nothing short of miraculous, and we as a global society... we should suck it up,…

I keep looking for, and failing to find, any metrics that suggest that GPUs or CPUs have gotten more efficient and less energy intensive over time. Simple intuition would suggest "yes, obviously, of course", but I would love to see a simple line graph indicating so. Toms Hardware seems like a good place to look, but their comparisons dont overlap backwards very far

Devices probably became more energy efficient in that they can do more with 1 watt-hour, but I doubt if they suck up less watt-hours: probably more.
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