After long nights in the lab, probably fuelled by gallons of coke, researchers at Missouri's University of Saint Louis have come up with a sugar-powered fuel cell. The battery, that runs on anything from soft drinks to tree sap, has the potential to run up to four times as long on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, as demonstrated by one of the boffins, who used a battery the size of a postage stamp to run a calculator.

If subsequent testing looks good, then we could be seeing commercialization within five years. But what really amazes me about this story is that the research was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. I'm looking forward to hearing about how meringues will be used in the War on Terror, feeding up Al-Qaeda terrorists with sweet treats until they are too fat to fire an RPG. – Ad Dugdale

Scientists Invent Fuel Cell Powered By Sugar [I4U News]

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