Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

The tattoo-like sensor being applied onto a person. American Chemical Society/YouTube

This tattoo can turn your sweat into electricity

Although don’t expect it to be powering your devices any time soon.

IMAGINE BEING ABLE to go for a run or workout in the gym and be able to generate electricity for a device at the same time.

Such an idea could be possible thanks to a team at the University of California San Diego, which has developed a temporary tattoo-like sensor that can convert sweat into electricity.

According to Engadget, the sensor monitors lactate, a substance that’s present in perspiration. If the activity becomes more strenuous, the more lactate the body produces.

For professional athletes, their lactate levels are monitored during performance testing to determine their fitness level, although this can only be done by collecting blood samples at different times during exercise and then analysed.

The tattoo overcomes this problem by including a sensor, allows researchers to monitor a person’s lactate level without a blood test.

The researchers went a step further by turning their findings into a biobattery. While the charge is quite small, the max that was reached was 70 microWatts per cm2, the researchers are working on a way of increasing the level of power which could be used to power small devices like watches.

American Chemical Society / YouTube

Read: The smaller, reversible USB that will replace all connectors is ready for production >

Read: What to keep in mind when using your phone as a WiFi connection >

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
5 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Barry
    Favourite Barry
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:40 AM

    I could understand if they had been in Peru and perhaps were then forced when leaving, but there’s a massive issue in their story. They traveled from Spain to Peru without telling anybody….this isn’t normal especially for such a long and expensive trip.

    To say they were forced, ok but that means that potentially that they were held at gun point in spain, forced onto plains, through security, emigration etc at no point were they able to speak to somebody else to call for help etc

    Something isn’t right, how did they end up in Peru, why were they there?

    796
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute rodrigo detriano
    Favourite rodrigo detriano
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:46 AM

    Absolutely. They had entry opportunity to call for help before bring caught. They argue that the kidnap gang knew where their families lived and whatever. So why are they saying this now! I mean, why are they prepared to put their families in danger now, yet were afraid to before they were caught.

    490
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Begrudgy
    Favourite Begrudgy
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:54 AM

    What else are they going to say. You dont admit to anything until you’ve seen a solicitor first.

    156
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sinead Taaffe
    Favourite Sinead Taaffe
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:12 AM

    If a gang were going to kidnap two people why go to the extra expense and risk of doing it in Spain and bringing them through an airport and all that security to bring them to Peru, why not just kidnap two people already in Peru? And if they were kidnapped I’m sure they wouldn’t be kept in a hotel, makes no sense to me

    357
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sharon Larkin
    Favourite Sharon Larkin
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:32 AM

    And let go sight seeing on their own.

    210
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Geoff Dolan
    Favourite Geoff Dolan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 2:10 PM

    Gullible girls who made ‘friends’ with seemingly wealthy girls in Ibiza, the latter who said “Hey, let’s all go on holidays to my home in Peru, all expenses paid, you guys are cool” then were forced at gunpoint in Lima, possibly?

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gggordon
    Favourite Gggordon
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:57 AM

    caught with over a million quids worth of drugs in Peru … the wagons circle and priests, consulates, media and government jump to action.

    caught with a million quids worth of drugs in Tallaght … media witch hunt, universal condemnation, sunday world trademark ‘nickname’ applied …. .

    the human condition is a strange one

    771
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:15 AM

    @Gggordon – the difference is that they are girls. And young girls are considered innocent and boys guilty. It’s part of the Irish psyche.

    435
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lauren Masterson
    Favourite Lauren Masterson
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:39 AM

    I totally agree with you and it really annoys me . If this was two boys we probably wouldn’t hear too much about it and when we did hear about it I’m sure priests and everyone else wouldn’t be giving then the sympathy that they are getting now !! How gullible is that priest for gods sake !!

    323
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cathy Flynn
    Favourite Cathy Flynn
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:18 PM

    Ah the patriarchy,its good for nobody!

    49
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute the lost lenore
    Favourite the lost lenore
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:56 PM

    Do you have a phone number for this patriarchy so I can call to complain? According to this site it seems to be the root cause of all sorts of nastiness yet I’ve trouble locating any tangible evidence that it exists.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Liam Donohoe
    Favourite Liam Donohoe
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:01 PM

    LOL, you fairly said it there boy!

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute the lost lenore
    Favourite the lost lenore
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 2:15 PM

    Tap the button beside the secret door on level 29, jump over the spikes and you’ll get to the final boss of the patriarchy.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute dave
    Favourite dave
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:49 AM

    11 kilograms of cocaine???there lucky it wasn’t the Far East,they would have got the chop.

    498
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Bannon
    Favourite Mary Bannon
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:44 AM

    The word greed is all over this story

    339
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe OShea
    Favourite Joe OShea
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:42 AM

    The Peruvian authorities will lose face if they believe the girls story. How many security officers and police did they each pass on their trip to Peru, and on the way back, and never once said “Help, we are in danger”.

    300
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:56 PM

    I’d like to believe that Joe – but in reality the media campaign will get them preferential treatment rather than a more severe sentence. It’s all in their favour.

    54
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patricia Mc Cann
    Favourite Patricia Mc Cann
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:40 AM

    Two and a half years in a place like that will be a lifetime.

    229
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute B9xiRspG
    Favourite B9xiRspG
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:49 PM

    they be lucky if its only two and a half years……

    80
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Liam Byrne
    Favourite Liam Byrne
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:57 AM

    That priest is extremely naive.

    222
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Doey Walsh
    Favourite Doey Walsh
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:49 PM

    “Careful now” ;)

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eamonn O'Connor
    Favourite Eamonn O'Connor
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:06 PM

    “Very often prisoners have to sleep on the floor against the cold… Food is bad and hygiene is bad too.” it’s fu**in’ prison in south America, what do they expect, luxury beds, and carpet on the floor, and 5 course gourmet meals!!? if you break the law, you do the time (if you’re caught).. simples!

    218
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Gormley
    Favourite Patrick Gormley
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:17 PM

    As I have said before, lets just wait for the docu- drama on channel 4 or even better still the movie.Starring Lindsey Lohan as Michelle and Michelle Keegan as Michalla. Colin Farrell could be the cockney stud and Terry Wogan as that bishop. Ant & Dec could be the Columbian gangsters. Why not go all the way and do the musical…” Just Lima Alone ” .. I smell an Oscar in the wings .

    193
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute aido74
    Favourite aido74
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:10 PM

    Maybe not an Oscar or film but definitely Jeremy Kyle material,bet he’s on the next flight over for the interview lol

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute karla carroll
    Favourite karla carroll
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:48 AM

    Conned?

    I thought they were kidnaped!!

    #confused *~*

    191
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Adrian Mc Sweeney
    Favourite Adrian Mc Sweeney
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:19 PM

    They were kidnapped first and THEN conned at gunpoint Karla. Dont you get it?? The kidnappers would have known full well that the occurrence of Stockholm syndrome would lead these two young vulnerable women to ill advisedly place ALL their trust in their captors, rendering them powerless to suggestion. They KNEW these unfortunate damsels would be sitting ducks for the subtle psychological wiles and nuances of seasoned mind-control kidnappers, particularly if there was hypnosis involved. Make no mistake, those guys are the best of the best. They probably trained under Keith Barry on one of his covert guerrilla mind control trips to the basque country or south America. The whole gun-point thing would only have been a hypnotic prop; a trance inducer if you will, to assist in the “conning”.

    144
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Denis O Donovan
    Favourite Denis O Donovan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:24 PM

    Can’t tell if this satirical so I gave it a thumbs up. I’d it’s serious let me know so I can change it!

    62
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:29 PM

    I agree Adrian. They’re totally totally totally innocent. And they’ll still be totally totally innocent when they’re released without charge as a result of a servile media. Then they’ll come home and they’ll totally totally totally sell their stories for a fortune to UK tabloids et al for a fortune.

    108
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:32 PM

    It’s brilliant satire Denis.

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall Sullivan
    Favourite Niall Sullivan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:52 AM

    Te only person who hasn’t visited them at this point is the Pope. The savage media bias in this case will do nothing to deter other young people from trying the same thing. They are now internationally famous. I bet their loving it.

    153
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross Buckley
    Favourite Ross Buckley
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 2:03 PM

    Is there anything to be said for another mass

    107
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Hill
    Favourite Nick Hill
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:36 AM

    2.5 years well spent.

    150
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Elmo1212
    Favourite Elmo1212
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:47 AM

    Ye sure and Grisly Adams had a beard.

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Guilfoyle
    Favourite Brian Guilfoyle
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:21 AM

    But Grisly Adams did have a beard…

    (Great reference)

    57
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute tomeenoldstock
    Favourite tomeenoldstock
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:15 PM

    So Elmo, what your saying so is that Grisly Adams used his beard to smuggle drugs in?

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Elmo1212
    Favourite Elmo1212
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:22 PM

    Im saying a phrase out of a great film. Brian gets it.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dancing Priest
    Favourite Dancing Priest
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:37 AM

    Does anyone know anybody that was ever kidnapped and made to smuggle drugs for some Cartel? Seems a little ‘Hollywood’ to me?

    124
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute wallyballs
    Favourite wallyballs
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:02 AM

    Before I make this comment I stress that I am in no way defending the girls here but just a thought. Say the girls agreed voluntarily to smuggle the drugs from Peru while in ibiza in exchange for money and a free holiday and then when they actually got over to peru they realised the magnitude of the situation and got nervous/a fit of consciousness and decided to back out but were then forcibly pressured into to carrying out the deed, are they still AS guilty? im finding it difficult to believe their current story of being kidnapped in spain and then flown over…

    97
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Truth Patrol
    Favourite Truth Patrol
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:25 AM

    Yes they are still as guilty if they had “second thoughts” and tried to back out. Guilty is guilty if they are convicted. Circumstances may be used to mitigate the sentence though.

    73
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Duke of Limerick
    Favourite Duke of Limerick
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:38 AM

    I’ve said this from the start, they could have been used.

    The armchair judges on here should take an empathy pill.

    89
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Duke of Limerick
    Favourite Duke of Limerick
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:39 AM

    *used under threat of violence*

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Jingles
    Favourite Mr Jingles
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:55 AM

    How come they didnt use a spoon then?!

    146
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute karla carroll
    Favourite karla carroll
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:58 AM

    They used 11kg of drugs instead. Best way to let the authorities know you have been kidnapped.

    108
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Neill
    Favourite John O'Neill
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:08 PM

    They’d be overweight on Ryanair and be charged extra…

    99
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ptriley
    Favourite ptriley
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:26 AM

    Irish priests conned us for years and years

    88
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patricia Mc Cann
    Favourite Patricia Mc Cann
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 10:56 AM

    Their story is suspiciously familiar , can’t put my finger on it, but I think it was an episode of banged up abroad and the drug dealers did travel with the smuggler. Not saying that’s the case here just a possibility.

    84
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cannabis Freedom
    Favourite Cannabis Freedom
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:08 AM

    Here it is, two naive girls go to Peru and end up behind bars for a few years – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvSGY69XnX4

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patricia Mc Cann
    Favourite Patricia Mc Cann
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:48 AM

    Interesting watching . Different episode to the one I am thinking off as the girls were stopped bringing drugs into the country to get a connecting flight, it was South America though.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Doyle
    Favourite Stephen Doyle
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:59 AM

    Tommy Bowe not helping?

    81
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross MacCárthaigh
    Favourite Ross MacCárthaigh
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:43 AM

    2 1/2 years and when they leave they will get a book deal, maybe a film will be made and no doubt the UK press will make them celebrities. We’ll see them on every reality tv program going.
    2 1/2 years hardship and the life of Riley afterwards….

    77
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute comment feedz
    Favourite comment feedz
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:01 PM

    Hope they get what they deserve

    75
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Doey Walsh
    Favourite Doey Walsh
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:52 PM

    You’d think callin her Ma everyday, she may of thought to mention a kidnapping
    Must of slipped her mind

    65
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Kavanagh
    Favourite David Kavanagh
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:23 PM

    Shawshank’s full of innocent men, and silly party girls, someone get them a rock hammer & a Calvin Harris poster…

    61
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nuala Bourke
    Favourite Nuala Bourke
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 2:51 PM

    They should get robert’s mother (irish oral fame) to have a chat with them. She’d sort it out fairly lively, no bull shitting that woman!

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ad0wQVcN
    Favourite ad0wQVcN
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:08 PM

    General consensus is that they are guilty and should be left to rot.

    I find this quite strange given the trial hasnt even started yet and no one here has a clue what actually happened.

    They seem quite stupid but I find it hard to believe that two young girls would be stupid enough to carry such a large volume of drugs on a plane. Im guessing they didnt know how much contraband they had.

    Its also obviously unlikely that they are sole benefactors behind this endevour therefore it is plausable that they were either forced to do it or were offered financial gain or possibly free tickets to David Guetta.

    Im not going to judge them though until they are tried in court.

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute J. Dunn
    Favourite J. Dunn
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 2:05 PM

    That’s why I always keep a metal spoon in my pants when I travel.

    45
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nicky o Connor
    Favourite Nicky o Connor
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:09 PM

    Ye do the crime ye do the time simple as

    45
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick
    Favourite Patrick
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:25 PM

    because of all the bad sentiment here I hope they are freed. I hope they uncover evidence which supports their story and they o home to their parents and loved ones.

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute COOM
    Favourite COOM
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:23 PM

    Do the crime, do the time.

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute BadDrivingIreland
    Favourite BadDrivingIreland
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:39 PM

    They are are going to prison, end of.

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eric Foley
    Favourite Eric Foley
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:56 PM

    What pleasure would one get in seeing these girls [or anyone except violent criminals] have to spend years in that hell-hole? This I really don’t understand.

    I hope they get out of there.

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ben Gunn
    Favourite Ben Gunn
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:06 PM

    It’s a good job that commentators on this thread are not representative of jury panels ( I hope ).
    Anyone arrested for anything would be tried, convicted and sentenced before a shred of evidence had been presented and tested.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ross Buckley
    Favourite Ross Buckley
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:35 PM

    Im in argentina at moment and from what ive read with one girls dad bringing ugg boots over they its there 15 mins of fame and there will be no consequences

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Andrew Storan
    Favourite Andrew Storan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:30 PM

    The way Ye are all talking you’d think Ye actually knew what happened. Give them, the priest trying to help them and their families a break from the speculation please.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Declan Noonan
    Favourite Declan Noonan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 11:50 AM

    Where are the comments from the “legalize, regulate and tax it” brigade?

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Geoff Dolan
    Favourite Geoff Dolan
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 2:28 PM

    It’s coke. Whilst powder cocaine is known as a rich person’s partty drug, it can be refined into crack cocaine the latter having decimated working class communities these last thirty years.We’re not talking weed here…

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Usawadee Wannapho
    Favourite Usawadee Wannapho
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:33 PM

    Poor innocent girls, they did nothing wrong, they should be back home with their mammies.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ColinB
    Favourite ColinB
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:36 PM

    This is probably what happened in this case http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/peru-drug-arrests-scot-tells-2169569

    The peruvian police are making this as high profile as possible to make it look like they take a hardline approach to drug trafficking

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat O'Brien
    Favourite Pat O'Brien
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 1:47 PM

    Does that priest really be leave they were conned.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lára de Siúin
    Favourite Lára de Siúin
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:39 PM

    Nobody will ever know what actually happened…

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lára de Siúin
    Favourite Lára de Siúin
    Report
    Aug 16th 2013, 12:39 PM

    Unless the cartel comes forward with hands in the air owning up??

    Yeah, we’ll never know what actually happened…

    8
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.