Scientists keep computers running for a year with energy from algae

They said the system is made from “common, cheap, and widely recyclable materials”.

“This means that it can easily be replicated hundreds of thousands of times to power a large number of small devices as part of the Internet of Things,” they said.

The Internet of Things is a vast and growing network of electronic devices that use a small amount of energy that collect and share data in real time over the Internet, such as smart watches.

The electrical current produced by photosynthesis reacts with an aluminum electrode used to power the microprocessor.

“Our photosynthetic apparatus does not operate like a battery because it constantly uses light as an energy source,” said Professor Christopher Howe, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry.

In the experiment, the device was used to power the Arm Cortex M0+, a microprocessor widely used in IoT devices.

Arm, a Cambridge-based microprocessor design company, collaborated with Cambridge researchers on the project.

“We were impressed by how well the system worked over a long period of time – we thought it might stop after a few weeks, but it did,” said Paolo Bombelli, also from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry.

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