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It was this line that got me: > Based on that technology, MIT researchers have made a button-sized power generator fueled by butane that can run three times lo
by Wilduck 15y ago
It was this line that got me:
> Based on that technology, MIT researchers have made a button-sized power generator fueled by butane that can run three times longer than a lithium-ion battery of the same weight; the device can then be recharged instantly, just by snapping in a tiny cartridge of fresh fuel.
There seems to be tons of awesome applications for such a technology. The first one that comes to mind is electronics for camping. You could have your mp3 player for your week long backpacking trip.
- sukuriant 15y agoOn that train of thought, I wonder if the human body produces enough heat for it. Imagine a radio player that just has to touch your skin to work (after proper safety evaluations, of course). Briefly ignoring Mark of the Beast sort of implications, this has some amazing, useful potential
- dunham 15y agoImagine what you could do with the heat that a macbook puts out.
- sukuriant 15y agoHaha, or an old AMD processor. I was mentioning body heat because we generally ~automatically~ generate that, and provide fuel, because we're always eating and putting off body heat, unless we're really ill. It'd be (functionally) free energy.
- gojomo 15y agoI have often noticed at conferences groups of somewhat overweight techies, clustered around a limited number of electrical outlets, to power their laptops. I've thought to myself, "these people have too little outlet and laptop energy, and too much energy stored in their bodies." Of course the next step should be obvious: what if we had a power adapter that could plug directly into excess body fat? Lose weight and extend your battery life! Eat all you want and work it off in a marathon unplugged session of 'Angry Birds'! This new heat-to-electricity-pathway brings us a tiny step closer to that dream.
- kragen 15y agoPhotovoltaic cells need to be cooler than an incandescent light source in order to work at all, and substantially cooler to work with reasonable efficiency.
- sukuriant 15y agoSo what's wrong with 98.6?
- stephth 15y agoIt's the line that followed that really got me: Another device, powered by a radioisotope that steadily produces heat from radioactive decay, could generate electricity for 30 years without refueling or servicing. If that can be made safe, we're talking about devices that are self sufficient, under any conditions. Sounds like science fiction.
- dexen 15y agoActually radioisotope-powered artificial pacemakers [1] has been used commercially for some two decades now, even if they aren't very popular. The technology of generating electricity from heat was somewhat different, but the technicalities of making small nuclear devices safe for Joe Average to just carry around in his chest are solved. Welcome to the future, please fasten your seatbelts :^) ---- [1] http://duckduckgo.com/?q=radioisotope+artificial+pacemaker&kl=wt-wt http://duckduckgo.com/?q=radioisotope+artificial+pacemaker&#...
- sliverstorm 15y agoThey are known as RTG's. Voyager 1 & 2 both have one. It's irksome that they make it sound like a wicked new discovery. Sure, we don't have miniature RTG AA batteries yet, but it's hardly a new idea.
- bane 15y agoI don't remember which one, but Asimov talked about micro-nuke devices powering personal electronics in a Foundation Series book.