Now NASA Plans Ear-Powered Space Travel!!!

Powering mighty spaceships with the hair in your ears??? Christ! What's next from NASA?

NASA is experimenting with a substance found in the human ear that could be used to power space exploration.

The trials are based on the outer hair cells in the human ear, which use the natural electrical force all humans generate to move hairs and amplify sound. This is made possible by a protein called prestin that coats the hairs.

I wonder if ETs achieved faster-than-light hyperspace travel with the hair in their ears??

NASA is and always was a great entertainment company!!

Cheers!

Here...

Mike...

You always find the craziest stuff from nasa and i love ya for it (in a blokey, respectful kinda way of course ).

I always enjoy your posts my man, keep up the good work.

We got 'em wanting to blow up/move the moon, move Earth...... AND NOW, ear powered space travel...and TAX dollars pay for these guys to think like this???? ha,hahha,hahahaahah

aw man, keep em comming dude!

Peace

P.S. please "FLAG" this people, this is FUNNY stuff

[edit on 13-3-2007 by Anomic of Nihilism]

If you read the entire article it is not ridiculous at all.

so, when the ET's come, all we need to do is stuff some q-tips in their hairy ears and they will be stuck here.

Dig it.

Originally posted by Dulcimer
If you read the entire article it is not ridiculous at all.

You're right. That sounds very interesting. I wonder if there could be other uses here on Earth for this technology. Firefighters, divers and the like. Cool indeed.

This is some neat stuff! I love Biomimetics... it just seems the more we delve into natures mysteries, the more it seems to pwn our own designs and methods for just about everything.

[edit on 13-3-2007 by sardion2000]

but will they have enough earwax to contain all that power?

Originally posted by Dulcimer
If you read the entire article it is not ridiculous at all.

I agree, nothing about it seemed "entertaining". Unless you only read the headline. It sounds like a great idea to me really.

We got 'em wanting to blow up/move the moon, move Earth...... AND NOW, ear powered space travel...and TAX dollars pay for these guys to think like this???? ha,hahha,hahahaahah

They are not wanting or planning to blow up the Moon or move Earth. I believe those were just some wild idea's and theories being discussed. Nothing more. Relax.

why dont they just come out with their anti graviti ships already. instead of this crap.

starting to get anoying.

Well I agree with you about the anti gravity ships.
I dont supose anyone thinks this might lead to the anti gravity?

This isn't a propulsion device, it's an energy gathering device, which I guess could be used for some sort of propulsion when on Mars...

[edit on 13-3-2007 by sardion2000]

Dangit' Skillit,

I wanted to crack the joke about the ear wax.

so will they be starting to harvest our waxes?

I'm really skeptical about this. I do see an article in New Scientist that's less sensational, but the thing is that I don't see a lot about the lab or the researchers. They seem to be new. :
space.newscientist.com...

And Silver did have a contract from NAIC to develop ...something:
www.niac.usra.edu...

Hmmmm...
www.niac.usra.edu...

I suppose this is science really thinking outside the box and I'm a bit too boxed here.

There is nothing humorous about this that I can see. A quick search confirmed this is real. The possibilities of its uses are awesome to say the least. Free energy with no negative impact on the environment would be very desirable for more earthly uses. I think this may be more important than just an interesting bit of trivia. If you do a search and read the articles you will see what I mean. I think we will be seeing a lot more about this in the future.
article link

Some more recent developments and info on this story -
article link

Originally posted by Byrd

I suppose this is science really thinking outside the box and I'm a bit too boxed here.

Has there ever been a breakthrough that was not doubted by the general science community? This one is worth watching. This could open some significant new doors. This reminds me of the concept of using catfish whiskers as protein sensing devices that was considered tripe not that many years ago. There could be something to this?

Byrd,
What's so hard to swallow? The human ear hears sounds by vibration. This creates current by vibration. This is just reversing the principal. Instead of creating electro-chemical impulses that our brain recognizes as sound, it creates a current which is then used to charge/power on-body devices.

Also this isn't exactly "free" energy in the "traditional" sense, it's more like regenerative braking. I've seen similar concepts which uses piezoelectricity, movement, pump-hydrolics(like in dune), etc. This is just another attempt at solving the age old problem of never being able to make a cell-phone battery last as long as you'd like.

Amazing If It Works.think Of All The Civilian Applications Of Bio-electric System.like Self Powered Electric Cars Perhaps.

Originally posted by sardion2000
Byrd,
What's so hard to swallow? The human ear hears sounds by vibration. This creates current by vibration. Instead of creating electro-chemical impulses that our brain recognizes as sound, it creates a current which is then used to charge/power on-body devices.

Sardion, we're talking about powering spaceships! I'm sure you are aware of the power required. Not some electro-chemical impulses to move a mouse on your monitor! That's what's crazy.

[edit on 13-3-2007 by mikesingh]

Imagine a field of what looks like wheat..Waving in the breeze.
Generating kilowatts of power..

Do I have this analogy correct?
Is this kind of what they are saying?