Your urine may be of more use kept about your person. At least, that’s what a team of researchers from the University of the West of England think, because they’ve made a pair of socks that use the liquid to generate electricity.

The new sock contains a network of integrated tubes that can hold up to 648 milliliters of urine. The act of walking forces the liquid through microbial fuel cells, which contain bacteria that take delight in consuming the nutrients held in your pee, creating electricity in the process.

In a series of experiments, published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, the team shows that the socks are capable of powering a wireless transmitter which could broadcast a message every two minutes.

(via Researchers Have Made Socks That Use Urine to Create Electricity)

— rw