Chuck Darwin<p>‘It was an accident’: the scientists who have turned humid air into renewable power</p><p>The promise of <a href="https://c.im/tags/electricity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>electricity</span></a> from humid <a href="https://c.im/tags/air" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>air</span></a> – <a href="https://c.im/tags/hygroelectricity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>hygroelectricity</span></a> – is capturing researchers’ imaginations. </p><p>In May, a team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst published a paper declaring they had successfully generated a small but continuous electric current from humidity in the air. </p><p>“To be frank, it was an <a href="https://c.im/tags/accident" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>accident</span></a>,” says the study’s lead author, Prof Jun Yao. “We were actually interested in making a simple sensor for humidity in the air. But for whatever reason, the student who was working on that <a href="https://c.im/tags/forgot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>forgot</span></a> to plug in the <a href="https://c.im/tags/power" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>power</span></a>.”</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/02/it-was-an-accident-the-scientists-who-have-turned-humid-air-into-renewable-power?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/science/2023/j</span><span class="invisible">ul/02/it-was-an-accident-the-scientists-who-have-turned-humid-air-into-renewable-power?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</span></a></p>