Nepali teenage inventor

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Thought I'd share this great success by a nepali teenager. Hope it turns out to be commercial success as well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1212005/Teenager-invents-23-solar-panel-solution-developing-worlds-energy-needs-human-hair.html

last_buddha

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impressive...

Maalpaani

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Good job! Best wishes for your success Mr. Karki & Co.

dolphin

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this is a great news. i hope this invention gets new direction with funding from international communities and i really hope these guys registered the patent otherwise this whole thing is gonna get swallowed by big international corporations.

and i also hope that this recognition brings positive attitude toward Nepalese students by colleges and universities from all around the world especially in the engineering fields.

Thanks

damikattu

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Are they same guys !!

fortunefaded

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Hmm, this is quite fascinating and I smell something funny.
Hair doesn't conduct electricity. The article says he only used hair, which is impossible. But, at 1:04, the news reporter says the kid used half kg hair covered with silicon. If it is pure silicon then I will be damned if this thing is working and this kid will be a genius in my book. But if he is using doped silicon then there might be two possibilities.
By covering the hair with doped silicon which just acts as a conductor, while the melanin is generating current through photoelectric effect, then that means his idea is very novel and should get immediate attention from the science community.
But if he is just covering the hair with silicon and tricking everyone by saying that the hair is generating energy, while in fact it is the silicon, then he's pulled off a good trick.
I just hope the kid is genuine.

Pret Aatma

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I am no skeptic by nature, neither am being a jealous smartass coz a KID from a VILLAGE of NEPAL is getting the attention and accolades from the media. Some of the recent publicity stunts pulled by some self-righteous Nepaliese who want cheap, fleeting publicity have made me more skeptic than before. It could not get more exasperating to the already marred prestige of the country in many ways. As for the subject at hand, I found it really hard to believe in the whole "story".

If what this kid did is genuine (not a media hoax), then two things can be inferred:

1] Human hair is a photoelectric material which acts as a semiconductor (under NORMAL conditions) - just like silicon.

2] Human hair is not a semiconductor per se but when arranged like cell array, it does behave like one.

Now I do NOT think 1] is even possible because even for a semiconductor such as silicon to conduct, it needs to get doped. Human hair, as we have known so far, is capable of possessing only static charges that cannot contribute to the power that can light a bulb. Have we just discovered a new semiconductor ? I don't think so. If we really have, then hold on, there are more in the list: wool, fur and any fabric material that can possess static charge.

2] could be possible because we have not researched much on freakin' "hair" anyway. There could be some stark revelations along the way, who knows...

But personally, I don't believe in 2] either. The use of silicon on the receptors in this experiment, as described by the video, negates the probability of the usage of hair as a PV material. Since hair is dense and BLACK (or at least what these kids used in their experiment are likewise), I think it just acted as a BLACK BODY to absorb more heat from the surroundings even under normal conditions.

If they could show this without the use of any silicon whatsoever, and in a cold environment and with WHITE human hair, I would say an inventor is born in Nepal. Go get the patent right!

Last edited: 09-Sep-09 07:10 PM

Pret Aatma

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It's not just few of us here but many others share my skepticism. This recent article, in particular, has not only expressed skepticism but debunked the "invention" of the teen:

http://sites.google.com/site/edwardcraighyatt/hairsolarpanelnepal

Nothing is official yet, though. Whatever is the outcome from this hoopla, somebody who's 18 and just a high-school kid has nothing to lose in my opinion. I however cannot stand the adrenaline rush of the media in spreading such stories without much scientific contemplation.

Something to learn from I guess.

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