Snails in a race for biological energy harvesting

Bioengineers are getting better at replacing and enhancing body parts, but so far they've struggled to power implantable bionics without resorting to clunky batteries. Recently, researchers have turned to blood as a power source, because it carries energy in the form of electron-rich molecules like glucose and delivers it to all parts of the body. Chemist Evgeny Katz of Clarkson University, in Potsdam, N.Y., and his colleagues tested a new kind of fuel cell that, when implanted in Neohelix albolabris snails and immersed in the snails' blue, blood-like hemolymph, produced a small, steady supply of electricity over a period of months.