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[Helgoland]

Once you turn them into biofuel they do.

[MrRoboto75]

We should call them

Power Plants

[Helgoland]

If would be easier to attach a magnet and a couple wires to a sunflower. They turn very slowly, but they do turn.

[Max™]

Once you turn them into biofuel they do.

...better yet, we can put a bunch of plants near a subducting fault, and then with enough patience plus time we're rolling in... oh wait.

[wierd]

Seriously?

Plants produce glucose. Glucose fuel cells are totally a thing. Implant fuel cells into the plant's circulatory system, and now you have biological solar panels.

[wierd]

algae, embedded inside an otherwise closed system, integrated into the fuel cell system.

1) genome is simple, and well documented. (easier to modify for improved glucose production)
2) easy to cultivate inside an otherwise sealed system.
3) fairly easy to integrate with the fuel cell.

If you want a large, multicellular plant-- something fleshy, like a cactus.

[Max™]

I was also briefly pondering how you could go about getting plants to fix certain chemicals to grow a fuel cell and started having stuff like phosphoric acid pop up as one of those "your brain thinks this is related but you aren't sure why" and then started thinking "waaaait, you're wondering about using sunlight to concentrate energy using plant matter and phosphorus?" because that sounds like a super !!fun!! idea, though I'd imagine there would be other routes you could theoretically go in with less exciting failure conditions.

[wierd]

The cell is closed system, EG-- all the water it will ever need is baked right inside the cell, along with the algae. It would be more expensive though, since most of the system is synthetic.

The cactus one might be cheaper and easier to install. Put it on a giant saguaro cactus or something.

[wierd]

Precisely why attaching a small device to the trunk of the cactus is not likely to require much maintenance over time-- the cactus does not grow fast, so the connection to the plant's xylem wont become "dead" after a year, like it would on a treetrunk. This would be something you stake onto the side of the cactus, then wire up, then otherwise ignore.

[Egan_BW]

Mechanical parasite!

[Akura]

I remember reading something a few years ago about them engineering plants that produce electricity.

[martinuzz]

Stephen Hawking has accepted Richard Branson's offer to be a passensger on a flight of the Virgin Galactic.
Hawkins into space, yee-haa. I hope he does survive the trip.

[TempAcc]

Can hawking, in his current state, even live through the g forces involved in takeoff? It'd be kind of a huge letdown to just have him die before even reaching space.

[martinuzz]

Can hawking, in his current state, even live through the g forces involved in takeoff? It'd be kind of a huge letdown to just have him die before even reaching space.

He already survived a weigthlessness simulation by freefall dropping a jet with him in it.
Still, it's gamble. Who knows, maybe he even plans on dying that way. I don't think there's anti-euthanasia laws in space. (Over here, as well as in a lot of other European countries, ALS is a no-questions asked (well, almost) approval reason for legal euthanasia)

[Starver]

Can hawking, in his current state, even live through the g forces involved in takeoff? It'd be kind of a huge letdown to just have him die before even reaching space.

Virgin Galactic is the air-launched method, with SpaceShipOne peaking at 4g upwards, and a bumpy 5g in its return deceleration (which is more significant than the vomit comet, as mentioned, which cycles through 2g stretches between its 0g bouts, and even a Saturn V moonshot was limited to 4g at its peak).

But Hawking's disability is a paralysing one, not a weakness of bones (e.g. Brittle Bone Disease) or cardiopulminary problems (though his habitually sedentary lifestyle won't help) and given the limits that a normal human can experience (>45g on a rocket sled) I'm sure that with a bit of care and attention, and an adaptation of some of his existing supoort apparatus, there'd be no problem getting him through the SpaceShipTwo flight profile, assuming everything else goes to plan.


(Of course, we all know that the real aim of this mission is to get Hawking, and various other important people, to the secret moonbase just before things go bad down on Earth...)