Commentary: According to a wildly improbable "tip" that is currently circulating, it is possible to charge your mobile phone battery by simply holding the stems of two freshly picked peepal tree leaves to the terminals for a minute or so. The message circulates via email, blogs and forums, especially in India, Nepal and other parts of Asia. Even some Asian news outlets have picked up the story, thereby giving it completely underserved credibility. Not surprisingly, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support claims that such an outlandish technique would ever actually work. It is possible to construct rudimentary batteries out of everyday objects such as potatoes, wire and nails. However, it is absurd to suggest that enough energy to charge a mobile phone battery could somehow magically flow from ordinary tree leaves just by touching them to a battery terminal, especially in only a minute or so. Even purpose-built, mains connected phone chargers take much longer than a minute to recharge a phone. The message claims that hundreds of people are using the technique to charge their phones. In spite of this apparently widespread popularity, however, there are no credible news or scientific reports confirming its validity. If it were possible, the technique would certainly have gained widespread media attention around the world and become the subject of serious scientific studies. It is absurd to suggest that the media, green groups, and the scientific community would simply ignore such a potentially important source of alternative energy. Several videos, apparently showing the technique in action are also circulating. However, the "results" shown in these videos are vague and inconclusive and they certainly do not offer any real proof that the technique works. Nepalese blogger, Navin Lama has dismissed the technique as a hoax and has published a response from Nokia in which the mobile phone giant declares the peepal leaf charging technique described as untrue. In alternative versions of the technique, the battery is actually replaced in the phone with the leaf stems wedged between the battery terminals and the battery case. In some brands of phone, this might give the illusion that the phone had been charged because the stems interfered with the phone’s charge sensors. Thus, the experimenter might think that the technique had actually worked when, in fact, the higher charge reading display on the phone was due only to false sensor input. And, for the record, I have also tried the trick myself with a number of different types of tree leaves and three brands of mobile phone. None of the experiments had any impact whatsoever on the charge level of the battery. Granted, my geographic location means that I do not have immediate access to a peepal tree, but I strongly suspect that the results would be the same even if I had used peepal leaves in my experiments.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:54:09 +0000
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