A teenager from Canada recently won an award at the Google Science Fair for developing a flashlight that’s powered by body heat.
15 year old Ann Makosinkski from British Columbia created a flashlight that circumvents the need for batteries altogether (which in turn benefits the environment given that improper disposal of batteries can wreak havoc on our ecosystem).
“Using four Pelter tiles and the temperature difference between the palm of the hand and ambient air, I designed a flashlight that provides bright light without batteries or moving parts. My design is ergonomic, thermodynamically efficient, and only needs a five degree temperature difference to work and produce up to 5.4 mW at 5 foot candles of brightness” Makosinski wrote in her project brief.
Advancements such as these could mean big things for regions where the electricity supply is infrequent. Check out the video that Makosinski put together below about her winning design, dubbed the Hollow Flashlight, and head over to the Google Science Fair website to learn more about the other winning entries:
