Technology is amazing, and recently, scientists created a material that generates electricity from movement and sound. A magnetoelastic tent concept could one day turn wind, movement and fabric flexing into usable electricity. Here's the story.
Strange 'magnetoelastic' tent generates electricity from wind, body movement and sound to power small devices
Researchers have developed a tent that harvests energy from its own motion — a process that could one day power small devices in shelters, disaster zones and off-grid camps.
The key lies in a material property known as "magnetoelasticity," which turns bending and stretching motion into electrical energy. Magnetoelasticity, first described in 1865 by physicist Emilio Villari, is the change in a material's magnetic flux density when mechanical stress is applied in the presence of an external magnetic field.
The design, described in a study published July 31 in the journal Matter, uses smart textile layers that respond to everyday movement in and around the tent, harvesting both environmental and biomechanical motions. Wind, a person shifting inside, or the fabric flexing during setup can all contribute to the energy output, making the shelter itself part of the power system.
The tent fabric acts as an energy harvester. When the material bends, stretches or flexes, its magnetic state changes, and that shift is converted into electrical energy through induction. The tent's floor incorporates magnetoelastic ribbons, while its roof is constructed as a layered architecture that integrates conductive fibers and magnetoelastic film.
In the study, the researchers reported that tapping a small sample of the magnetoelastic textile unit with a hand charged a 0.22-μF [microfarad] capacitor to 5.8 volts within 1.5 seconds. This is equivalent to the kind of charge you might see in a tiny timing or filter cap on a low‑power sensor node. While that's too little to power something like a smartphone, it demonstrates that even a small piece of the material can harvest energy.
Scientists have already shown that magnetoelastic devices can generate electricity from body movement, sound and other mechanical inputs, but the new study scaled this concept to larger fabric systems.
Primarily, the scientists envision it being used in places where electricity is limited, unreliable or unavailable, where even modest power generation can make a difference by powering LED lights, charging a phone or running a small heater.
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I just made this short video about how Dolly Parton shaped my life and influenced me to appreciate the simple things in life, someone who tries to be a Beacon of Hope and treat others with kindness. She was a role model, and inspiration. ** I met her in 1994 when I had glasses and a mustache. Yes, that's me. And I got to tell her then how she changed my life for the better.
***It's been a tough year losing our three dogs: Tyler, Dash, and Cody, my mother in law, my friend Chris and now Dolly, 6 souls who were precious to me.
I may be a medium but I have a very hard time with physical passings.
WATCH MY 3 MINUTE VIDEO MESSAGE: https://youtu.be/mCGYRWmcZdw
Two Boston area friends bought a sunken pontoon. What they turned it into became a viral sensation.
It was probably a bad idea, but the journey amassed a large following.
PHOTO: Jake Doggett atop the houseboat he and a buddy built on a rotting pontoon boat. The construction presented one problem after another, but made Doggett and his floating house viral stars. Barry Chin/Globe Staff
2 friends bought a sunken pontoon & turned it into a viral sensation
ESSEX — Two years ago, Jake Doggett did the sort of thing some guys in their early 20s think is a good idea. He and his buddy James Little spent $4,000 on an old 24-foot pontoon boat that had sprung a leak and sunk in a river.
But the pontoons had been professionally repaired (the Facebook Marketplace seller promised); it had a new(ish) motor; and the two men, friends since first grade, had an audacious plan. They were going to use the 41-year-old pontoon boat as the foundation for a houseboat that they would build together and share into old age.
They had no idea what they were doing, and the problems, as someone not in their early 20s might have guessed, started immediately. Then something interesting happened, something very modern: Those problems went viral.
Doggett documented the build online, and soon the project amassed a large following of people who watched them spend most of their sanity and all of their savings to ultimately, finally, create something incredible.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Doggett, 25, said on a recent day as he steered a small boat through the Great Marsh and pulled up to their creation. “I get butterflies in my stomach every time I see it on the water. It’s a floating house!”
The houseboat has become a bit of a tourist attraction for boaters since it appeared in Essex Bay this summer. – Barry Chin/Globe Staff
The houseboat, which is moored in the channel behind Crane Beach, has become something of a tourist attraction in Essex Bay since it appeared this summer. But online, millions have been following the misadventure that led to its creation — “a combination of poor planning and being overly optimistic,” as Doggett described it.
But the result is nothing short of spectacular: a luxury tiny home, just 100 square feet inside, but fitted with a shower, an oven, a sink, a refrigerator and freezer, and a seating area with a table that lowers to form the base of a bed — all of it powered by solar panels. There’s even a small wood-burning fireplace.
“I still can’t believe we pulled this off,” said Doggett, who grew up in Hamilton and lives in Newburyport, as he gave a reporter a tour of what is perhaps the internet’s most famous houseboat.
Doggett and Little have been building things together since they were children — treehouses, zip lines, go-karts, potato cannons, you name it — and after finishing college, Doggett converted an old truck salvaged from a junk yard into a mobile camper. He documented the build, and his six-month road trip around the United States, on social media under the name “Salvage to Scenic,” and soon had a small following.
Little, who had also graduated from college and was trying to figure out what was next, reached out and said, “Let’s build something together.” Both of them had grown up boating on Essex Bay, and they hatched the idea for a houseboat.
Not that they knew anything about building, houseboats, or, apparently, how much things weigh. From the outset, their dream had a serious weight problem, for the pontoons could only safely float 5,000 pounds, while their design would ultimately weigh about 9,000.
They bought more pontoons, then even more, plus a new boat trailer to support it during construction. They spent money they didn’t have on expensive stainless steel parts so the houseboat could survive the salt water for the long haul. Family and friends chipped in time and advice. Doggett sold his truck and his motorcycle to keep money coming in. And the project, which they thought would take, say, three to four months and about $10,000, instead took 14 months and about $40,000. More than once, they thought about walking away.
But for Doggett, it fit in with a lifetime interest in problem-solving — particularly when it came to fixing and saving things that had been tossed off as junk — and documenting it in educational videos. He learned to weld when he was in seventh grade so he could make a grader to attach to an old lawnmower and use it to fix the potholes in his gravel driveway. He started an eBay consignment shop, repaired and sold old iPhones, and had a landscaping business. When a video of him replacing a car radio got 100,000 views, he started an educational channel about fixing cars and posted a new video every Friday for seven straight years.
So what’s next? He’s unsure, but “for the story, the lifestyle, to continue, there will always need to be some form of problem-solving.”
Which is where we come to Doggett’s latest problem. Little got a job in Florida and won’t be able to enjoy this houseboat they dreamed of growing old in. So they made the decision to put it up for sale and split the profit. The listing on Facebook Marketplace, where they are asking for $140,000, was so popular that it was removed for suspicious activity. (It’s back up now.)
There have been a few interested buyers, and one possibility where someone would buy out Little’s half and Doggett would share it with them. But for the moment, Doggett’s just enjoying time in the floating house with his girlfriend, as well as the positive responses he’s been getting on the water and from people around the world.
Dolly Parton passed today at 80 years old. I am absolutely devastated. This is crushing. She changed my life when I was a teenager. It's honestly like losing another member of the family.
When I discovered her in 1978 at age 16 that she changed my life.
I learned many things from Dolly who helped shape my outlook on life, my personality, optimism, and caring about everyone.
She taught me hope. Taught me optimism, taught me to appreciate the simple things in life and treat others with kindness. She taught me that all people were loved and are just like everyone else, straight or gay, and any race or religion. I even named my sweet Weimaraner after Dolly Parton. I write this with tears in my eyes.
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I met her in 1994 (see photo below) with my nephew Kenny and friend JC. (Yes, that was me with a mustache and glasses).
Dolly Parton, who rose from a loving if impoverished upbringing in the mountains of East Tennessee to become the “Queen of Country” music, a Hollywood star and a beloved American icon, has died, her family announced on Tuesday.
Parton was 80.
Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, announced the news in a video posted on her Instagram. He did not provide details about her death.
“My name is Brian Seaver, son of Cassie Parton, and I’m representing the Parton and Owens family today announcing the passing of my aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, Sister, Sis and Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next,” Seaver said in a video.
Dolly Parton in 1970. Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images file
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality. As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it til now,” he added.
Seaver added that Dolly “lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by (her late husband) Carl, her parents, and countless others.”
“Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly — Aunt, Granny, Gigi. May God bless Dolly Parton, and may God bless you all. She will always love you,” Seaver said at the end of the lengthy video statement.
Her death comes after Parton suddenly announced in May 2026 that she was canceling a Las Vegas show and said she'd been undergoing treatment for kidney stones for several years.
"Lord, they dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tennessee," Parton said in a statement. "But seriously, my immune system and my digestive system got all out of whack over the past couple three years, and they’re working real hard on rebuilding and strengthening those and hopefully I’ll be up to snuff again soon."
Last Friday, Parton acknowledged she had lost a step after her husband Carl Dean died in March 2025. But she insisted she wasn’t ready to leave the stage.
“Even though I’m still healin,’” Parton told People. “I’m still workin’! You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner, and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”
During her more than 60-year career, Parton sold more than 100 million records and won 11 Grammy Awards, making her one of the bestselling musical performers of all time.
Parton also became a star on the silver screen, gaining a whole new audience and critical acclaim when she brought her Southern charm to movies like “9 to 5” (she wrote and sang the theme song), “Steel Magnolias” and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
Bedecked in blonde bouffant hairdos and never without her makeup, Parton also became one of the nation’s best known brands who parried questions about her hourglass figure and augmented breasts with her signature self-deprecating wit.
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” Parton once said.
Colin Higgins, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton on the set of the film "9 to 5" in 1979.Steve Schapiro / Corbis via Getty Images file
Parton was also a shrewd businesswoman who amassed an estimated $650 million fortune and maintained creative control in the cutthroat and male-dominated music industry. She presided over an entertainment empire that included the Dollywood theme park. And she was a devoted philanthropist who launched the Dollywood Foundation to provide poverty relief and fund educational programs in her native East Tennessee.
Never shy at expressing her Christian faith, Parton was also a public supporter of the LGBTQ community who advocated for marriage equality and spoke up in defense of transgender people.
“I keep saying: If you’re the fine Christian that you think you are, why are you judging people,” Parton said during a 2017 interview with Larry King. “That’s God’s job.”
Along those lines, she jokingly told a British outlet a few years earlier: “I think gay couples should be allowed to marry. They should suffer just like us heterosexuals.”
Through it all, Parton leaned on the love of her life, her husband Carl who died in March 2025 at age 82 and who, from the moment they married in 1966, happily ceded the spotlight to his world-famous wife.
Dolly Parton in a rare photo with her husband, Carl Thomas Dean. dollyparton.com
Born January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River near the town of Sevierville, Parton was the fourth of 12 children.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, could not read or write and often supplemented the family's meager income from their farm by working constructions jobs.
Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, ran the household and was fond of singing traditional Appalachian ballads. The future superstar said it was her mother who instilled in her a love for music.
Parton had an affinity for music from a young age.Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images file
And it was at church that Parton first started performing. By age 13, Parton was singing on local radio and television shows and made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry, where she met Johnny Cash.
“Dolly Parton has one of the most distinctive voices in American pop music,” Katherine Dacey, a professor at the Berklee College of Music, told NBC News before Parton’s death was announced. “Her high soprano voice gets its distinctive character from her fast vibrato and vocal twang.”
The day after she graduated from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton headed to Nashville where she first made her mark writing songs for other performers, some of them with her uncle Bill Owens.
In songs like “Tennessee Homesick Blues” and “Coat of Many Colors,” Parton drew inspiration from her hardscrabble childhood.
Parton performs in 1976.David Redfern / Getty Images file
Three years after leaving school, Parton released her first record, “Hello, I'm Dolly” and caught the attention of country star Porter Wagoner and became a regular on his shows.
Then, in 1974, Parton broke out on her own when she topped the country charts for the first time with a song she wrote and performed called “Jolene.” She later revealed it was inspired by a bank teller who flirted with her husband when they were newlyweds.
Her next four singles were also country chart toppers and one of them, “I Will Always Love You,” later became a huge hit for Whitney Houston in 1992.
Parton also won her first Grammy with a single from that record called “Here You Come Again.”
Parton performs in 1995. Ron Davis / Getty Images file
Parton, who earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984, made several more movies and performed around the world, but she always returned to the music that first made her famous — and to the hollers of East Tennessee where she was born and where she and her husband made their home.
“Never ignore your roots — your home or your hair,” she once said.
In 1986, Parton opened the Dollywood theme park in the Great Smokey Mountains near her hometown. The 165 acres includes rollercoasters, a bald eagle sanctuary and music and crafts that pay tribute to the region's Appalachian heritage.
Parton at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in 1988.Ron Davis / Getty Images file
Parton and her husband never had children of their own. And in public statements, Parton said she “believed that God didn’t mean for me to have kids.”
“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” Parton told Oprah Winfrey in said 2020. “So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work.”
Parton also left her fans guessing about her politics, although in 2016 she angered many Republicans by saying that Hillary Clinton was “very qualified” to be president.
In an online post, Parton insisted she was not endorsing Clinton or Clinton's then-rival, Donald Trump.
“I try not to get political but if I am, I might as well just run myself ‘cause I’ve got the hair for it, it’s huge, and they could always use more boobs in the race,” she wrote.
While she generally dodged commenting on partisan politics, Parton was hailed in 2020 for helping to fund research at Vanderbilt University that led to the development of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine.
“My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure,” Parton tweeted in April 2020, as much of the nation was under lock down. She added that she would be donating $1 million to the research.
Abumrad, who treated Parton when she was in a car accident in 2013, became friends with the country star afterward.
Parton's philanthropic legacy also included the creation of the Imagination Library, which mails free books to children around the world. In the three decades since it was founded, the organization has mailed more than 300 million books to kids around the U.S., as well as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Parton receiving a Kennedy Center Honor in 2006.Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP file
The initiative was inspired by her father, who was illiterate. Parton often spoke about his intelligence and strength of character but said she believed his inability to read and write held him back.
“When I got this idea to do the Imagination Library I wanted to get Daddy involved in it. I wanted him to help me with that so he could take the pride in that and so he did,” she wrote on her website in 2020. “He got to live long enough to hear the kids call me the Book Lady.”
I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob
