A Sound Use for Heat Of all the waste products of modern
technological devices, heat might seem like the most benign. But
overheating is a major concern for computers, electronics, power
plants, automobiles, even humans who are tromping around hot
climates. Heat seems like a particular waste since it is a
byproduct of energy that could go to more useful purposes.
However, since heat itself is a form of energy, if it could be
captured and transformed into something useful like electricity,
the process would increase efficiency while also getting rid of
the problem of excess heat. That was the thinking of Orest Symko
and his physicist colleagues at the University of Utah. Their
approach is somewhat unconventional: They turn the heat first
into sound, which is then directly converted to electricity. In
the 18th century, glass blowers discovered by chance that heated
glass tubes would spontaneously produce sound. Thermoacoustic
refrigerators, which use sound to pump heat, have been
investigated for some time (see