Original Story

What do geriatric ears, shower drains and solar panels have in common?  Hair. Perhaps not before, but they do now, thanks to Nepalese teen, Malin Karki.  While most of us spent/spend our teen years  picking our faces or reading hentai, this lovely kid was figuring out a way to create and harness renewable energy.
While reading a book by our favorite lucasian professor, Stephen Hawking, Malin noted that melanin was a contributing factor in energy conversion.  Thus, he abandoned his increasingly expensive hydro current project, banded together with some buddies, and built a prototype that could power a cellphone.   Clever, no?

Some of you may be wondering why this is such a big deal.  Well, for starters, it means that annoying-to-make and expensive silicon can now be replaced with free and ever-renewable hair.  At a $38 for a unit with an output of 18 watts (as opposed to about $216 for a comparable silicon version), it really is a revolutionary find that could make solar energy actually viable as an alternative option for those of us who don’t have money to throw away.  Bravo, Malin and pals, the earth and our wallets thank you.

If only it were true.  Scientists are having a good laugh at the expense of wide-eyed idealists (myself included)  who were so happy to hear of such a concept  they forgot to check the facts. Turns out, the unit created was a cuprous oxide solar cell (it’s soooo obvious now).  While the cell does have a small voltage current, it would be impractical to scale up and  thus is used mainly in school laboratory demonstrations. The sad part is:  it would work just fine without the hair. What a letdown.