Novidades

Uma forma radical de armazenar energia:

Thursday, July 08, 2010

New "Ultra-Battery" as Energy-Dense as High Explosives

Metallized xenon difluoride heralds a new class of solid fuels.

By Christopher Mims 

The energy density of batteries is tremendously important as an enabler of new technologies. Meanwhile, the scramble to create ever more powerful batteries has even led some manufacturers to contemplate powering cell phones with energy-dense hydrocarbons like propane.
This is why the claims made for an extremely early-stage "ultra-battery" recently announced in the journal Nature Chemistry are so remarkable.
"If you think about it, [this] is the most condensed form of energy storage outside of nuclear energy," said inventor Choong-Shik Yoo of Washington State University. Yoo's ultra-battery consists of "xenon difluoride (XeF2), a white crystal used to etch silicon conductors," compressed to an ultra-dense state inside a diamond vice exerting a pressure of more than two million atmospheres.
Applying this level of pressure to XeF2 "metallizes" the substance, pushing all of its atoms closer together, into a new stable state.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/25447/

Algo de divertido, um Homem-Aranha com Aspiradores:

newbox.TV

English 13-Year-Old Builds Vacuum-Powered Spider-Man Contraption And Literally Climbs the Walls

07-09-2010 • Rebecca Boyle via PopSci

Meet your friendly neighborhood Spider-Kid! It's the stuff of childhood dreams, right? A boy in Cambridge, England, can climb the walls just like his favorite superhero.

OK, Vacuum-Boy's powers are slightly less subtle than Peter Parker's. But you have to love 13-year-old Hibiki Kono's creativity. He spent five months designing and building his Spider-Man gear from a pair of cheap 1,400-watt vacuums bought at Tesco (like a British Wal-Mart) and some suction pads.

The British press quotes Hibiki saying he used to dress up as Spider-Man when he was younger and he loves all the movies: "It's great to be able to climb walls like him."

Vacuum-backpack whirring, Hibiki picks his way along a brick wall, blue crash pad below. He says he would go higher but his instructors won't let him. As for his mother, she thinks it's brilliant, he says. "But she won't let me use it in my bedroom as she's worried I may pull down the ceiling," the Sun quotes him saying.