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15-Year-Old Ann Makosinski Invents Body-Heat-Powered Flashlight

By Rain Noe - July 1, 2013

in Sustainable Design

Canadian citizen Ann Makosinski has been interested in alternative energy sources for at least four years. Which is to say, since the sixth grade. Fifteen-year-old Makosinski, now in the tenth grade, has just become one of 15 finalists in the 2013 Google Science Fair competition, as she's invented an LED flashlight powered by nothing more than the heat from your hands.

Most impressively, she built it out of parts she ordered on eBay and bought at Home Depot, with the exception of an aluminum tube her father acquired from a university machine shop. Check it out:

Sure, it might not be bright enough to dazzle a helicopter, but the fact that it requires zero batteries, and that Makosinski was able to compose a working prototype for just $26 Canadian, indicates she's onto something. Can't wait to see what her senior year project is!

Via CBC News

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karl

10 years ago

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Make a light to use the heat of a bucket of hot water--heat the bucket in the sun. Wrap in cloth to store the heat for nighttime.
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jenny

10 years ago

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I'd buy stock in Ann's company right now. Her creativity and talent is bountiful.

Winning the GOOG science fair AND being named as a person changing the world by Time mag is pretty heady stuff, especially for a (now) 16 yr. old.

Thanks Jimmy Fallon for showcasing her (and the other young inventors)
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Tom

11 years ago

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Absolute respect!
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Tom Mc

11 years ago

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I'd hire her right now. This sort of imagination and ingenuity shown by someone of that age will only mature into something better. I don't know if the hand-heat powered flashlight will go anywhere (my hands are always cold) but someone determined enough to build something they thought of, make it work, and keep it under budget by being that resourceful, will almost certainly find success later in life.

Kudos to her.
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