What better to power your cellphone than your very own chatter? Research by scientists in Korea has revealed that this may be possible in the future. They have identified the potential of the main ingredient in calamine lotion – that horrible pink cream your mom smeared on your sunburnt back when you were a child – and harnessed it to convert sound waves into electricity. The zinc oxide in calamine contains tiny particles called piezoelectrics. When bent, these piezoelectric materials can change mechanical energy into electricity. And there are heaps of piezoelectric resources: cane sugar, quartz and even dried bones can produce electrical charges. At present, the scientists have only been able to produce a mild electrical current of about 50 millivolts – cell phones require several times this to work.

In the future, sound power could be used for various ways – to charge up mobile phones during conversations, or even to generate electricity through sound-absorbing insulating walls.
[Discovery]