Boffins keep abreast of things

BOFFINS ARE HATCHING new ways to power electronic gismos using bra power.

The big idea is that women joggers could generate enough power from a run around the block to power any electronic gismo they might need.

While you would think that most of the boffins who wanted to study breasts would be blokes, the foremost expert on breast motion is apparently a woman.

The research has come to light thanks to the stirling efforts of a Slate hack who wanted to find out what research, if any, was going on in breast electricity design.

LaJean Lawson, a former professor of exercise science at Oregon State University, has been working with Nike to develop better sports bra designs.

She said that breasts move on three different axes: from side to side, front to back, and up and down. The most motion is generated on the vertical axis.

Professor Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Tech is currently working to develop fabric made from nanowires which will capture energy from motion. Wang's wires are about 1/1,000th the width of a human hair. When woven together in a fabric, these nanowires rub up against one another and convert the mechanical energy from the friction into an electric charge.

Unfortunately for Wang, he believed that you never needed to wash a bra until the female hack pointed out the errors of his ways.

Another area is using the energy of the bra strap, which bears the pressure of holding up the breast mass.

Larry Rome, a biology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and the creator of Lightning Packs, said it might be possible to insert a linear generator into the bra. A linear generator is a lot smaller and creates energy by moving a piston up and down. Rome conceded that with the right body type, this just might work, though he warned it "probably wouldn't be very comfortable." µ

L'Inq
Slate