Alternative Energy Harnessed by Teenagers Saying 'Like"

With energy resources growing scant and expensive, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been looking into more accessible forms of power. On Tuesday the team released the product of its work begun in the spring of 2008.

Leader of the project, Thomas Marks, says that he came up with the theory one day while driving his daughter to dance practice and she was telling him about her day.

That's right; the outcome of research is a recording device that can be placed near a teen's mouth and has the ability to convert the word 'like' into usable energy. Test subjects include the Saint Joseph's cheerleading squad. Captain of the 3 year national champ team, Jessica Bradley told reporters, "I was like, totally blown away. Like one day at lunch I was like talking to my friends, and I just like hooked up this thing to my iPod and like, by the end of lunch, it had like a full battery." Over the course of the five minute interview, Jessica was in fact able to power a microwave set on high for up to a full minute.

The device, which will be available for public consumption by the end of this year, is light and portable. "The idea," Marks says, "is that you can just wear it around and over the course of the day, or simply during a dinner conversation, enough energy can be produced to take a break from more harmful power sources."

Through tests, the research team's data has shown that the amount of energy harvested does reach its peak at sleepovers as well as times when new gossip is released.