To the Rescue of Our Ecosystem: the Ant Battery

    This could give "ant farms" a whole new meaning: The shell of an ant can be used to make car batteries. Oh, I probably shouldn't say "shell of an ant," but rather "shells of ants," for it surely will take a ton of ants. (The outer covering of the ant is officially called the "exoskeleton," but that's too big a word for me, so, if you will pardon, I will call the covering a "shell.")

   But, yes, put away all those alkaline, nickel and lithium batteries. You know you shouldn't be using them anyway. I mean, do you know how harmful those metals are as they linger in the ground once it is time to throw them away? Lithium batteries are especially harmful, taking hundreds or thousands of years to break down. What the world needs now, is not just love, sweet love, but a battery that can be made from the shells -- I mean exoskeletons -- of ants.

   The day may come. Farmers will raise a crop of ants, so they can harvest their shells. Intead of throwing away the shell and taking what's on the inside, they'll take the shell and throw away what's on the inside. How's that for turning things inside out.

   Now, the news of the day is that they are making progress in using the exoskeletons of crustaceans (you know -- lobsters, crabs, etc.) to make batteries. And, these will be the finest of batteries. Whereas the batteries in gasoline cars need to be charged every 250 miles, the lobster battery is said to still be going strong after 400 miles. That's about 400 freeway miles, then.

   Here's hoping that means the crab battery will last longer than the toxic metal varieties. The battery in your gasoline car goes out in three to five years, and the battery in an electric car goes out in eight to ten years -- and costs about $20,000 to replace. We need a cheaper alternative.

   While the news of the day is on the shellfish batteries, I did read that the exoskeletons of ants can be used. So, I'm no longer going to pour gasoline on the ant hills when I see them. No, I'm going to encourage my ants. Because someday -- if I have enough of them -- I'll be able to sell them to the ant battery manufacturers.

(Index -- Climate change info)