Tag Archive

The Lithium Chase

Image by lennox_mcdough via Flickr

For many years, few metals drew bigger yawns from mining executives than lithium, a lightweight element long associated mostly with mood-stabilizing drugs.
Suddenly, the yawns are being replaced by eurekas. As awareness spreads that lithium is a crucial ingredient for hybrid and electric cars, a global hunt [...]

A Future That Doesn’t Guzzle

Image via Wikipedia

DETROIT — About 98 percent of the vehicles sold in the United States last year were powered by conventional gasoline engines, and hybrids occupied just a tiny niche.
But at the opening Monday of the big Detroit auto show, the internal-combustion engine seemed almost passé.
The world’s automakers unveiled a number of hybrid gas-electric and [...]

Flow Batteries

Image via Wikipedia

Batteries that can be “refuelled” quickly could give electric cars greater range
PROTOTYPES of new electric vehicles that are soon to go on sale show lots of promise. They are clean, quiet and provide nippy performance. But even with advances in power systems and improved lithium-ion batteries, their range on a single charge is [...]

New nano-material could lead to self-washing windows and solar panels

Here is a great example of real invention happening “sideways” . . . and causing us to add a new category: Process of Invention
While attempting to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease researchers have discovered a new nanomaterial that can repel dust and water and could provide a self-cleaning coating for windows or solar panels. [...]

In Denmark, Ambitious Plan for Electric Cars

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Is saving $40,000 at the showroom enough to get drivers behind the wheel of an electric car? With a program in the works to add easy access to charging stations, Denmark is about to find out.
For all their potential, electric cars have always been the subject of more talk than [...]