The MIT team has now used this process to make all the components needed for their engine, and each part works. Inside a tiny combustion chamber, fuel and air quickly mix and burn at the melting point of steel. Turbine blades, made of low-defect, high-strength microfabricated materials, spin at 20,000 revolutions per second -- 100 times faster than those in jet engines. A mini-generator produces 10 watts of power. A little compressor raises the pressure of air in preparation for combustion. And cooling (always a challenge in hot microdevices) appears manageable by sending the compression air around the outside of the combustor.Wait for this!
What these guys are doing is designing a gas-powered turbine engine small enough to fit on a silicon chip about the size of a quarter and using it to replace the batteries in electronic devices. Don't ask what kind of gas. I have no idea. But it might give new meaning to the phrase "fill up" on a cell phone.
Can't we just find smaller squirrels and let it go at that?
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