(no subject)

[braunian]

Piezoelectric crystals bending in millionths of a second when exposed to light (they can also generate electricity)

Gather a colony together and when deformed, they can produce electricity with no wires. A portable microscopic generator. (effect is reversible: with applied electricity, the crystals deform and do their own pressing. Now light itself can act as electricity and deform the crystals)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity