Nuclear Battery That Runs 10 Years 689
Jenny writes "A battery with a lifespan measured in decades is in development at the University of Rochester, as scientists demonstrate a new fabrication method that in its roughest form is already 10 times more efficient than current nuclear batteries -- and has the potential to be nearly 200 times more efficient. Similar to the way solar panels work by catching photons from the sun and turning them into current, the science of betavoltaics uses silicon to capture electrons emitted from a radioactive gas, such as tritium, to form a current. As the electrons strike a special pair of layers called a 'p-n junction,' a current results. I can imagine lots of applications for this new battery including my own laptop."
Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Careful... (Score:3, Funny)
Nuclear Battery+Laptop = Sterile Work Environment! (Score:3, Funny)
I'd hate to see what would have (Score:1, Funny)
This is too dangerous (Score:1, Funny)
betavoltaics? (Score:5, Funny)
Tough call... (Score:2, Funny)
I can imagine lots of applications for this new battery including my own laptop
That a calculated risk: will you end up sterile and impotent or the proud wielder of a 14 inch hammer...
Nucular (Score:2, Funny)
Imagine the marketing meeting.. (Score:4, Funny)
Not on my lap (Score:2, Funny)
I can imagine lots of applications for this new battery including my own laptop.
I'm not sure I'd want a nuclear battery on my lap. Maybe that's just me.Re:Boom! (Score:2, Funny)
Future slashdot headline (Score:4, Funny)
Apple: iPod Dangerous When Wet
Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday May 13, @05:43AM
from the potential-hazards dept.
somefutureslashdotter writes "What do you do when your mom washes your iPod? Fix it, of course. A teenager in Australia found out the hard way that messing with the insides of his iPod is dangerous and needed to be pieced together from basic components after it exploded, leveling several city blocks."
Re:Great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A new application immediately springs to mind.. (Score:1, Funny)
Nevermind birth control... I would finally have the means to create superbabies!
Re:Careful... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:AKA (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Oh Noes--The "N" Word! (Score:2, Funny)
Just try to imagine getting through airport security with a nuclear battery. Although maybe if you hid it under the gun in your carry on they wouldn't find it.
Re:Great... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
All I can say: ouch.
Re:Great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
It keeps glowing and glowing...
Re:Great...for iPods! (Score:4, Funny)
Until your mother launders it.
And you take a screwdriver to it.
And it flips you into orbit.
Re:next time (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Safety Warning (Score:3, Funny)
With apologies to thunderpower-batteries.com [66.102.9.104]
Think of the childern!! (Score:2, Funny)
My sperm count is already decreasing directly proportionally to the amount of minutes I keep my LAPtop on my LAP due to heat being generated by my laptop. Now you want to go ahead and mutate the few soldiers I still have left on reserves??
Re:Non-lethal exposure (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Is the lead suit included? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Ummmm
Re:Great... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe not, but lets keep that Australian kid [slashdot.org] away from them, just to be safe.
Re:Laptop?!? (Score:1, Funny)
Why? I think the human race needs to be more open to mutation.
Re:Great... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Is the lead suit included? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Nooooooo!!! (Score:3, Funny)
I was with you up to the equating of nucular with nuclear. Regardless of your feelings about Bush, pro or con, you have to admit he's managed to sway a lot of people by his [irony acknowledged] scientific choice of words. So since, as you seem to implicitly suggest, we seem a nation more susceptible to words than truths, maybe this is just the shift that's needed to get it over the hump.
Then again, maybe it will later run afoul of something related to what I've heard cited about bicycles as the "40 pound rule", that is (if I'm recalling correctly): If you have a very light bike, it needs a 40 pound lock, if you have a 20 pound bike, it neeeds a 20 pound lock, and if you have a 40 pound bike, it needs no lock... so all bikes weigh the same. Maybe the same will be true with laptops, efficient batteries, and the weight of lead shielding to compensate for or protect from the so-called nucular option for efficient batteries...
Let's not let the quantum mechanical nature of this thing lead to too much spin control. The public deserves an immediate up or down volt...
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Nooooooo!!! (Score:1, Funny)
Dude, about your analogy:
Then again, maybe it will later run afoul of something related to what I've heard cited about bicycles as the "40 pound rule", that is (if I'm recalling correctly): If you have a very light bike, it needs a 40 pound lock, if you have a 20 pound bike, it neeeds a 20 pound lock, and if you have a 40 pound bike, it needs no lock... so all bikes weigh the same.
Sure, if you're commuting. You don't buy expensive bikes to commute with. It doesn't make sense for more reasons than the lock.
Maybe the same will be true with laptops, efficient batteries, and the weight of lead shielding to compensate for or protect from the so-called nucular option for efficient batteries...
There's no shielding required for tritium. Your skin is sufficient.
Let's not let the quantum mechanical nature of this thing lead to too much spin control.
Don't make me slap you.