That shiny piece of dirt on that finger there is a the world’s smallest working fuel cell. The battery was developed by engineers over at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and it’s only measures 3mm per side.

This battery has been totally redesigned. It has four components: a water reservoir, a metal hydride chamber below, a thin membrane which separates them and an assembly of electrodes meant to conduct the electricity. Now that we can imagine how this thing works, can we imagine it inside our gadgets? And stuck, say, about 50 of those in our newest cell phones?

The fuel cell here generates 0.7 volts and a current of 0.1 miliamps for 30 hours before finishing off its fuel. And the latest designs can get you up to 1 miliamp. So I guess we’re not sure yet where this technology is heading to, but cell phones might get it too, right?

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