The ingenuity of inventors is a powerful thing, and an amazing one as well, as evidenced by British researchers, who created the first heart-powered electricity generator in the world. The device, tested on pigs, works quite simply, or so the inventors say. During tests, scientists at the Southampton University Hospital managed to collect some 17 percent of the amounts of electricity regular pacemakers require to function.

 

The device consists of two small, liquid-filled balloons, connected to each other through a small tube. Inside this tube, the creators of the harvester placed a small magnet, which oscillates between two chambers of the heart – where the balloons are placed – alongside a coiled wire. Basic science tells us that coiled wires plus moving magnets equals electrical current.

 

That's exactly what the UK researchers did, by placing each of the two small balloons in a different position in the heart. As the heart contracts on one side, it squeezes one of them and sends the liquid through the tube to the other chamber. As this happens, the magnet moves inside the wire rather fast. When the heart contracts at the other end, the same thing happens, only the other way around.

 

Thus far, the pigs' hearts yielded an average of 4.3 microjoule per heart beat, which is roughly one sixth of the demands of a pacemaker or a defibrillator. Paul Roberts, a member of the UK team, and the one who presented the prototype harvester, says that by changing the type of polymer used to create the first generation of in-heart, balloon-like chambers, the efficiency of the device could more than double, as new polymers will be used for larger and more resistant chambers.

 

An immediate application for this discovery will be the reduction of invasive heart surgery rates, in patients suffering from heart problems. The batteries of their medical implants could last longer, and people would have to undergo fewer dangerous surgical interventions.