This is a scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins. This will just take a minute.

Do you like working up a sweat or do you feel like maybe sweat should work for you?

Well, hold on to your suitorifers glands. or do you feel like maybe sweat should work for you?

Well, hold on to your pseudoriferous glands.

Because researchers have designed a device that could someday produce power

from your perspiration.

The Shvitzi scheme was presented at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco.

Strannuous exercise generates lactate, the molecule that makes overworked muscles burn.

Athletes sometimes evaluate their fitness by checking the lactate levels in their blood.

To cut down on blood draws, researchers came up with a monitor that could measure the lactate in sweat.

The device they design strips electrons from lactate, which creates a small electric current.

The strength of the current reveals the amount of lactate present.

To test the system, 10 volunteers wore the arm patch sensor while they rode a stationary bike and the device recorded the current they delivered as they dripped.

Then the researchers thought what if they could tap into this energy to develop a sort of sweat-powered bio battery?

Their proof of concept

set up topped out at only about four micro watts of juice, not even enough to run a

watch. But with better electronics, exercising in the future could make dirty

clothes and some clean energy.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkins.