WiTricity: Cable Free Power Arrives
MIT physicist Marin Soljacic has managed to get around the biggest problem with transmitting power through the air; waste. Throwing power out in all directions means that nearly all of it remains unused. The fix? Magnetic resonance. Two 20 inch coils were designed to resonate with one another, with one hooked up to the power supply and the other to a light bulb. As the magnetic fields interact weakly with most other materials, the power can go through walls and more importantly, doesn't affect the human body.
The efficiency is still only around 40%, but that's a big leap over past attempts. They are close to getting 100 Watts on the receiving end, which is enough to juice up a laptop (the MacBook, for instance, sucks 85 Watts from it's adapter).
For more on the science behind this, see the article at Wired Science.
Scientists light bulb with "wireless electricity" [Xinhua]
Wireless Energy Could Signal the End of Power Cords [Wired Science]
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