WORLD OF TRICKS

a virus to charge our cellphone [image] A virustochargeyourcellphone Scientists claim to have developed a unique technique to harness electricity from a bacteriaeating virus to power your mobile phones. A team at theUniversity of California,Berkeleyare using the virus known asM13bacteriophage to replace toxic elements used to charge the cell phones. The virus possesses a property known aspiezoelectricity, which means it can translate mechanical energy into electrical energy, the 'Daily Mail' reported. Researchers believe the discovery could pave way for mobile phones that can be charged while you walk and replace thetoxic piezoelectricelements already used in mobile phones. Most mobile phonemicrophonesarepiezoelectricbecause theyneed to convert energy from sound waves into electrical outputthat can be transmitted and then translated back into sound waves at the other end of the line. Thesepiezoelectriccomponents are made out of heavy, toxic metals such as lead and cadmium, according tobioengineer Seung-WukLee.M13bacteriophage has theability to generate electricitywhen compressed without theinvolvement of any toxic chemicals. Lee and his colleagues found that the pencil-shapedM13 virusis potentially a perfect energy source because the virus is not harmful to humans. It is also cheap and easy to make tothe extent that scientists can get trillions of viruses from a single flask of infected bacteria. To improve the electricity generating power ofM13, Lee's team tweaked the amino acid content of the virus's outer protein coat by adding four negatively charged glutamate molecules. "This will bring a lot of excitement to the field," said Zhong Lin Wang, an engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "By utilizing the properties of these biomaterials, we can find unique applications in the future," Wang said.