Information Madness

Sridhar (an ex NASA researcher?) has developed an off-grid source of cheap, clean electricity in a device that is the size of a loaf of bread. The device is called Bloom Box, a much hyped Fuel Cell which will be formally introduced to the world on Wednesday at eBay's headquarters in California.

What is this Fuel Cell Bloom Box?

Bloom boxes are produced from stacks of ceramic plates. The plates, which are made of sand, are painted with special green and black inks. One such stack, or cell, can power a light bulb; 64 can power a coffee shop.

These bloom boxes can use any fuel source – gas, plants, wind, solar, etc – to generate power, which would theoretically enable the Bloom Box to operate entirely off the electricity grid. Bloom Box reportedly proved twice as efficient as traditional power sources and produced 60% fewer emissions.

According to the Guardian, Sridhar's work draws on his research on generating oxygen for Nasa's missions to Mars. Nasa has been using similar devices aboard its vehicles for years but Sridhar's achievement was to make the technology affordable, he told the Atlantic magazine last December.

"I want to open up access to energy the way that PCs and the web opened up access to information," Sridhar told the Atlantic. "So people can live where they want, and still be connected, without someone telling them when they can do their laundry."

Can't wait for Wednesday...