Buzzword of the future

OUT at sea, gentle waves provide power for thousands of homes. In cities, dance floor moves generate electricity for nightclubs. In the countryside, hikers use leg power to recharge their phones.

It is an alluring goal of clean, reliable power free from geo-political risks – and scientists in the United States said it lies within reach, thanks to a smart way to harvest energy called tribo-electricity. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, said they had built a simple prototype device that converts stop-start movement into power.