It amazes me how smart some people are. At 15 I was just trying to learn to drive a car; Ann Makosinski from British Columbia invented a flashlight that produces light just by using the warmth of your hand. It works via the thermoelectric effect which is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage. An article in gadgets.ndtv.com states: “The light generated is modest, but enough to find your keys or light the page of a book. It worked for around half an hour in her tests at an ambient temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius, but would last longer or shorter depending on temperature differences”. For people without regular access to electricity this is pretty impressive. Another article says, “She remembered hearing human beings described as walking 100-volt light bulbs: “I thought, why not body heat? We have so much heat radiating out of us and it’s being wasted.” How right she is. This technology has such far reaching potential. How many other things could be powered by harnessing our own body heat? I think she has a bright (pun intendedJ) future ahead of her.
