Solor Self-Powered Circuit Developed

For the first time, scientists have created a circuit that can power itself, as long as it's left in a beam of sunshine. Created by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, the world's first photovoltaic circuit could eventually power a new line of consumer devices or even model the human brain.

"This as the potential to create a new generation of optical and electronic devices," said Dawn Bonnell, a scientist from the University of Pennsylvania who co-authored a recent ACS Nano paper describing the research. "The touchscreen of your computer could act as both the electrical charger and the computer chip."

Right now Bonnell and her colleagues can only coax minuscule amounts of electricity from their photovoltaic circuits, far too little to power consumer electrical devices. Those amounts could quickly skyrocket.

Source: Discovery News - Eric Bland