3 ms·
Not an expert but I find this difficult to believe. We know a LOT about battery chemistry.
by brittohalloran 14y ago
Not an expert but I find this difficult to believe. We know a LOT about battery chemistry.
- VLM 14y agoI think the author intuitively knew that "A slight difference in electrolyte composition results in dramatically different long term electrode reliability" would not get quite as many page views as the completely false "No one has the slightest idea how and why it works." Especially by carefully phrasing the article such that the "it" refers to a hyper detailed corner case but implies its the entirety of mankinds chemistry knowledge, or at least battery chemistry. So three good PR lessons: 1) Dramatically exaggerate 2) Confuse pronouns... which "it" is the author writing about? 3) Appeal to ignorance, wave away all that science-y stuff in favor of awe and wonder.
- Dylan16807 14y agoI thought the article was fine. 1. We really have no idea what the molecules are doing in this protective layer. See the quote from an actual paper in semenko's post. 2. The it is the bit that makes lithium batteries not fall apart. 3. What the hell are you talking about with appeal to ignorance? The article is just explaining that there are gaps in our knowledge, basic science that we can measure, use, tweak but don't know the mechanism. There is no attempt to prove or disprove anything.
- smsm42 14y agoThe author of the article is, however, an expert. In chemistry (among other things). And the fact that we know a lot about chemistry of some other batteries does not in any way makes it impossible that we know very little about the chemistry of this specific one.
- kragen 14y agoIt sounds like you're familiar with the author previously, and know them to be a polymath. What is their background?