Could hamsters help solve the world's energy crisis? Probably not, but a hamster wearing a power-generating jacket is doing its own small part to provide a new and renewable source of electricity.

Nanotechnology researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a shirt that harvests energy from the wearer's physical motion and converts it into electricity for powering small electronic devices worn by soldiers in the field, hikers and other users.

The notion of generating electricity from flowing blood, pulsating blood vessels, or a beating heart may seem like science fiction. But scientists are reporting a stride in that direction in the August 8 issue of ACS’ Nano Letters, a monthly journal, with development a more powerful nanogenerator for powering implantable biomedical devices and other small electronics.

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype nanometer-scale generator that produces continuous direct-current electricity by harvesting mechanical energy from such environmental sources as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibration or blood flow.