Listed as #1 on the New York Times list of "Innovations that
will change your tomorrow" is Electric Clothes, an innovation of
the Wake Forest Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular
Materials: Physicists at Wake Forest University have developed a
fabric that doubles as a spare outlet. When used to line your
shirt — or even your pillowcase or office chair — it converts
subtle differences in temperature across the span of the
clothing (say, from your cuff to your armpit) into electricity.
And because the different parts of your shirt can vary by about
10 degrees, you could power up your MP3 player just by sitting
still. According to the fabric’s creator, David Carroll, a
cellphone case lined with the material could boost the phone’s
battery charge by 10 to 15 percent over eight hours, using the
heat absorbed from your pants pocket.