While it may sound like every six-year-old boy’s dream, a new electric fart machine could actually improve fuel cell technology.
The machine takes single-celled microoranisms called archea and gives them little electric jolts, which trigger the organisms to turn carbon dioxide from the air into methane and release it as, um, micro-farts. The methane can then be used to power fuel cells or store the electrical energy chemically until it’s needed.
