While Right-wingers are shutting down public education in America, this is what vibrant education systems are producing.
What this young lady, Ann Makosinski, made is a flashlight powered by the heat of a hand holding it. Makosinki is 15-years-old and a participant of Google’s 2013 science fair. The Google Science Fair calls on the best and brightest (get it?) to come and innovate, see what they can do.
Makosinski developed the flashlight using Peltier tiles. The tiles produce energy when they are heated on one side and cooled on the other. This design requirement for the Peltier tile is what inspired Makosinski to make the flashlight out of an aluminum tube with a hollow construction. Allowing external air to pass through the tube produced the temperature differential required to generate electricity with the tile (5 degrees Celsius!). Her interest in producing a flashlight powered by thermal energy generated form the human body came from a desire to reduce the use of disposable batteries.
For her invention, she won a $25,000 scholarship from Google.
