“Virus” and “tobacco” are not two words you usually think of in a positive light, but they could be the secret to making batteries last ten times as long.
Scientists have discovered that you can coat the virus rods with conductive materials and stuff them into a battery and make it work better. The rods bind to the electrodes and increase their surface area. With a bigger surface area, they hold more of an electrical charge, pumping up the battery life.
Perhaps a future where you only needed to charge a Kindle once a year could be not too far off.
How the Future of Big Tobacco Could Be Tiny Lithium Batteries [Fast Company]
…and this is how Skylab turns humans into Terminators. The machines win.
Wow, I never knew a space station from the 1970s could be so technologically advanced!
(unless you meant Skynet).
It faked it’s death by crashing another space station into Australia.
+1
I’m old enough to remember Skylab.
And I really don’t mean to double nitpick, but the humans were not turned into terminators.. The machines, made the terminators to hunt/kill the humans..
Did you watch the movie?
Wow, double fail!
You had the perfect chance to make a Matrix using humans as batteries joke, and you went with that??
Perhaps we can get efficiency up to the point where we can convert radiation (as in freely emitted photons or electrons) into electricity.
Fire up the lifetime charge Atomic battery.
That’s a sci-fi movie in the making, right there. Somebody leaves the batteries in a neglected lead infused toy made in China, and then a year later the batteries rupture and a super-electro-virus is on the loose.
Or it could be horror. I see the Chuckie franchise eatin this up with a spoon.
Hurry up and file a patent
Imagine if the viruses are like the Who’s in Whoville. Here we are electrocuting them to make our batteries last longer…they have feelings too you know. Even better, we make the viruses into super viruses by introducing them into the battery, and they escape from their battery…wipe out humanity just because we wanted longer lasting batteries.
At some point we’ll harness biological forces to generate electricity! And then we’ll realize that human beings have electrical energy! And then…the Matrix happens.
You bet your ass coppertop.
Rofl, I can imagine we will start having some kids just as energy sources.
“I plan on having 5 kids.” “two regulars, and three for power.”
“Oh, I have 4.” “this is John, Janie, Duracell, and Energizer.”
Having video games powered or turned on by a stationary bike scared the hell out of me as a kid. I was a fat kid. Now I ride a bike a few thousand miles a year for enjoyment. Not a big video game fan now either. Well, who doesn’t like Angry Birds. Thank goodness I beat that.
Hmm… sounds like a way to fix our prison system and the energy crisis at the same time.
Was this before or after Graymalkin created a Skylab that humans into Terminators?
Sweet baby Jesus, I just burst out laughing at the office… well played, sir.
+1
This just in….. Battery prices to increase 1000 percent!!!
Come on, I don’t want to be that guy, but no one has yet pointed out that virus != cell.
this.
Sure they are: C, D, AA, AAA, etc. (less than interesting tangent, 6V and 9V batteries truly are batteries but the cylindrical sizes such as those in my initial quip are actually single cells and not appropriately labeled as “batteries”)
Sounds like someone randomly picked 3 words out of a dictionary and say ‘hey, let’s do a science experiment on them!’ Now they need to justify the grant expenses.
Viruses aren’t cells. By definition they aren’t.
Sounds like the Energizer Bunny tested positive at the free clinic.
This might make tobacco more profitable as a growth medium for the virus than as a growth medium for cancer.
Yet, when you phrase it like that I am a little more disconcerted….
Now when I get a cold I can sneeze lightning.
+1 internets for you, my wife and I both cracked up reading your comment.
Andddddd how did they figure this out?
Some lab tech drop his AAA in a petri dish?
Ah science. Where mistakes make more progress than work.
Does anyone notice these breakthroughs are posted at a rate of about one a week, yet I still have to charge my phone daily?
Also coffee is good/bad for you, wine cures/doesn’t cure cancer and one beer a day will keep you from heart disease (or won’t, depending on how you read the data).