Most of the wind available on land is too gentle to push commercial wind turbine blades, but now scientists have designed a kind of “tiny wind turbine” that can scavenge wind energy from breezes as little as those created by a brisk walk.

The new device is not technically a turbine. It is a nanogenerator made of two plastic strips in a tube that flutter or clap together when there is airflow.

Like rubbing a balloon to your hair, the two plastics become electrically charged after being separated from contact, a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect. But instead of making your hair stand up like Einstein’s, the electricity generated by the two plastic strips is captured and stored.