One of the world’s most innovative new ideas looks a lot like a
stack of Tupperware containers filled with dirt. And
technically, it is. But it’s also a dirt-powered battery dreamed
up by Harvard’s Erez Lieberman-Aiden. And the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation thinks it just might be a game changer for the
developing world. The Seattle-based foundation announced the
winners of its Grand Challenges Exploration grants Thursday, an
attempt to spur creative –if not downright unusual — approaches
to solving problems in poor countries. There were 88 grants for
$100,000 awarded. The Associated Press has more on the grantees,
many of whom proposed solutions to sanitation problems in
poverty-stricken nations. The dirt-powered battery features a
microbial fuel cell that recharges using free electrons that are
abundant in soil bacteria. The foundation believes it could be
used by rural health clinics and for charging mobile technology.