Tag Archive

The Lithium Chase

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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 [...]

Can greener gadgets save us from e-waste?

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One laptop per child seems a simple slogan, chock full of benefit. What could go wrong when you put the power of the Internet and solar cells into the hands of children in the developing world? After all, not only does it train the global underclass in the tools [...]

Paperweight: A battery made from cellulose

Image by miheco via Flickr

A lightweight battery that could be used to identify and track objects
MANY an engineer has dreamed of making a battery as light, thin and flexible as paper. Such a device would dramatically trim the weight and dimensions of whatever it powered. Now Albert Mihranyan of Uppsala University in Sweden and his [...]

When an Electric Car Dies, What Will Happen to the Battery?

In the race to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, another challenge awaits on the other side of the finish line: recycling all of those batteries.

Inexpensive Thin Printable Batteries Developed

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For a long time, batteries were bulky and heavy. Now, a new cutting-edge battery is revolutionizing the field. It is thinner than a millimeter, lighter than a gram, and can be produced cost-effectively through a printing process.
In the past, it was necessary to race to the bank for every money transfer and every [...]