When walked on, these wooden floors harvest enough energy to turn on a lightbulb

Researchers are tapping into an unexpected energy source right under our feet: wooden floorings. Their nanogenerator enables wood to generate energy from our footfalls. They also improved the wood used in the their nanogenerator with a combination of a silicone coating and embedded nanocrystals, resulting in a device that was 80 times more efficient -- enough to power LED lightbulbs and small electronics.