A team of researchers from the University of the West of England has developed socks that utilize urine to generate electricity.
Yep… you read that correctly. What a time to be alive!
The innovative socks are capable of holding upwards of 648 milliliters of urine and work by filtering the urine through microbial fuel cells as someone walks. Bacteria then absorb the nutrients from the user’s pee and generate electricity.
Each step you take transfers a little urine around the silicone tubes in the sock’s heel, and while, yes, it’s a unique idea, how many people are going to be comfortable with pee stored in their socks?
Ioannis Ieropoulos, one of the researchers, feels pretty confident in the idea, telling New Scientist, “We envisage gear or clothing that already has or could have excretion incorporated, without people having to worry about collecting or handling their urine.”