Photo from Flickr/skippy13. Creative commons licence.
Researchers at the University of Southampton are developing a new way to create electricity from wave power.
They have called it the Anaconda because of its shape - a long narrow rubber tube, closed at both ends. It is designed to be anchored just below the sea's surface, with one end facing the oncoming waves. It is made of rubber and has no joints or hinges, so making it less expensive to make and maintain.
The New Scientist has produced a short YouTube video, and there is more information from Southampton where you can find still more links.
It was easier to find a picture of an electric eel than an anaconda, and in some ways it seems a more appropriate name. Still, the picture above doesn't seem to generate any warm feelings inside me, not at all..
They used to use horses to hunt electric eels. Men would ride the horses into the water where the eels were, which would agitate them, and cause them to discharge their electricity onto the horses. Once they were fully "out", the men would grab the eels.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't sound too good for the horses!
ReplyDeleteNo, it wasn't. I think most of them died of shock. :(
ReplyDelete