14 DAY TRIAL // This November 26, folks in London got to see a bunch of Brussels sprouts finally do something useful with their lives instead of just ruin people's appetite. Long story short: the veggies were used to light up a Christmas tree measuring no more and no less than 8 feet in height (2.4 meters).
In case anyone was wondering, there was no magic involved. Just simple science.
Thus, researchers with The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair took about 1,000 Brussels sprouts, and turned them into an environmentally friendly energy source. More precisely, they used them to make a battery.
Click Green tells us the innovative installation, dubbed the “Sprout Battery,” made its public debut earlier today, in central London.
It is made up of five power cells, each of which packs about 200 sprouts fitted with copper and zinc electrodes, the same source details.
The chemical reactions that take place between these electrodes generate current, which is stored by a capacitator and later used to light up the high-efficiency LEDs adorning the Christmas tree.
The researchers who worked on this project say that the eco-friendly battery has an energy generating capacity of 63 volts.
To prove that they are telling the truth, they have even connected the installation to a display whose sole purpose is to document the amount of energy produced by the veggies.
Commenting on this environmentally-friendly (and truly awesome, some might want to add) initiative, Paul Jackson, the current CEO of Engineering UK, said that, “We want young people to think about STEM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] subjects in an interesting way and are always looking for different ways to do that. It being the festive time of year – and kids’ dislike of sprouts being well documented – using them to create a battery seemed like a unique way to achieve that aim.”
“Every year thousands of pupils and teachers attend the Fair, which exists to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. We want to extend the buzz of the Fair further and wider, so that even those who can’t attend are encouraged to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths,” he added.