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Would you tell you kids to lower their music, if it's thumping base was lowering your heating bill? Or demand that your husband turn down the game, if hearing each play loud and clear would let you simultaneously use your laptop with no energy cost? Thanks to piezoelectronics, these are choices you may actually have to make someday.
Though their ideas are only in the "proof of concept" stage, Korean scientists have been excited by early results. "When bent, a piezoelectric material turns that mechanical energy into electricity." We have been experiencing this technology for years, in "environmental sensors, speakers and other devices." But now, scientists are trying to find ways to extract energy with them, instead of just injecting it.
I don't understand most of the technical aspects, but I do see the potential of creating energy from noise. We shall see if it is ever realized.
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9/24
Sensor-Equipped Spider Webs to Coat Aircraft
I was casually skimming the above linked article when the following line caught my attention:
"By adding ultrasonic wave-inducing piezoelectric devices, pilots could constantly scan the aircraft to discover, say, microscopic cracks in the supports long before they developed into life-threatening failures."
Apparently, piezoelectronics are good for more than powering our electronic devices. By helping pilots monitor every inch of an aircraft, they are useful in aviation safety too!
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10/5
Sound can leap across a vacuum after all (New Scientist)
Using crystal piezoelectronics, scientists have proven that sound can indeed travel through a vacuum. These crystals are apparently quite flexible, because they are able to stretch across the gap of a vacuum. They are also quite dexterous, because they are able to manipulate their partner crystal once they have reached the other side.
My visually creative mind is picturing a Gumby-like green arm stretching to clap a green hand waiting on the other side of a vacuum. There is no sound in the vacuum, but the "sound" traveled through to the other side.
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11/9
Check out slide 12 of this Newsweek slide show. It shows piezoelectronics in action on the sidewalk in Japan!
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