

A virus could increase lithium batteries capacity by 10x - phalien
http://www.fastcompany.com/1708167/how-to-make-lithium-batteries-last-ten-times-longer-incorporate-a-plant-virus

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redthrowaway
The biggest winner of this, should it come to fruition, would seem to be
electric vehicles. Electronic devices would surely prosper, but further
miniaturization of smartphones doesn't really seem desirable, so it would go
towards increased computational power and battery life. EVs, on the other
hand, derive a double benefit: By shrinking the battery, you reduce weight,
which increases range and efficiency, which reduces the requisite battery
size, etc. The end product would be much cheaper and much more efficient.
Having an economical EV that could get 1000 miles to a charge for the price of
a Civic would be huge.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Battery life in smartphones is rather marginal today. With light to moderate
use it's still necessary to charge smartphones every day and there's no
guarantee that your battery won't run out. Changing that equation such that
average battery life is on the scale of weeks instead of a day or hours is
quite significant, enabling people to use smartphones in new ways they would
not have before.

But yes, electric vehicles are definitely the most in need of higher energy
density batteries.

~~~
sliverstorm
_ahem_

My Nokia regularly goes a week without a charge with light usage.

(I've heard tell the power management in the Symbian kernel far outstrips the
competitors, which probably explains it.)

~~~
barrkel
It depends on how much or little the phone is doing, doesn't it. How much of
that time is it connected to wifi? How much data transferred? How many
background apps are you running? Do they use location services, orientation
sensors, light sensors, etc.? What size is the screen, and what is its power
output?

Etc.

~~~
sliverstorm
It's true, I put it through pretty light usage, with a meg or two data over
wifi a day, a few texts and calls. Still gets 2x the life of any other phone
I've ever had my hands on though, no matter how light I used them.

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bingaman
I can't be the only one that hates the word "automagically." I don't see
anything magic - he's explaining it right there and "therefore" or something
similar would have worked fine.

~~~
sjs
People seem to substitute it for "automatically" as they please, and I find it
annoying as well.

But I'm in the seemingly tiny minority that cringe when they see "begs the
question" misused, "should of", etc. Most people don't seem to care about
these things.

"I know this seems like a semantic quibble, but words mean things."

One of my favourite quotes, no idea where it's from.

~~~
eru
Does `should of' have any meaning? To me it seems like a typo of `should
have', but I am not a native speaker.

~~~
tl
should've (contraction of should have) and should of have similar
pronunciation, so using "should of" in writing is a somewhat common mistake.

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arnemart
There seems to be news about new and revolutionary battery technologies that
will increase capacity N-fold every few weeks. I have more or less stopped
reading about this, as none of the ideas ever seem to make it to the market. I
prefer to be ignorant of emerging battery tech, and would rather be pleasantly
surprised if anything of this actually turns into a product :-)

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sliverstorm
Perfect timing. I was only just discussing battery technology with some
friends, who believe batteries cannot possibly grow to capacities larger than
we have today on the basis of 'gee, they haven't grown as fast as other
technology in the past 100 years'

No faith in scientists, I tell you.

~~~
pierrefar
You reminded of a sort-of related quote: When an expert says something is
possible, they're almost certainly right and when an expert says something is
impossible, they're almost certainly wrong.

~~~
derefr
Except if the expert in question is a physicist; rigorously determining
exactly what is impossible, and why, is basically their job.

~~~
albertzeyer
Well, yea, under the assumption that the current theory is complete and right.

There are quite a few examples in history where great physicians have been
wrong.

Maybe todays physicians are more careful because of that but let's see how
radical the view on our universe changes in the future.

~~~
newman314
physicist = a scientist who studies or practices physics.

physician = doctor.

~~~
illumen
Says you.

~~~
pierrefar
Nope:

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/physician>

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/physicist>

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lini
Given that Li batteries are packing enough power now to be considered unsafe
and "explosive" in some cases, imagine what would happen if their capacity was
increased 10 times. I've started thinking conservatively about battery
capacity - it's the chips and software we should redesign, not only the
batteries.

~~~
Cushman
If batteries are considered unsafe and "explosive", how do we rate gasoline?

~~~
eru
Outside the movies, it's quite hard to get an explosion with gasoline. Total
energy density isn't the only factor. And that applies to batteries as well.

~~~
Cushman
Sure, we wouldn't be using gasoline if it weren't already pretty safe. I'm
just saying, before we call something dangerous, we should remember what the
alternatives are.

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jcfrei
Every now and then there's news about radically improving battery lifetime.
I'm skeptical. Wouldn't the organic cell structure of the TMV decay over time?

~~~
rflrob
Well, as a virus it doesn't have "cells" in the standard biology sense. The
nanostructures might be vulnerable to decay, but since (I think) the relevant
bits are the outer coat, I'd think they're pretty sturdy. I suspect the
longevity is one of the easier barriers to commercialization.

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Quiark
The one thing that popped in my mind when reading this was "poor viruses, they
put electric charge on them". :) Now it's clear that a virus is so simple that
it's not even clear if it can be considered alive, but what if something
similar was devised with bacteria? Where would we draw an ethical line? :)

~~~
stuff4ben
When it starts to defend itself against us. Of course it may be too late by
then (for us I mean).

~~~
pyre
But then it would be the 'evil bacteria' that was attacking 'innocent humans.'

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jaekwon
wow, i'm all for better batteries, but that's a lot of viral mass we're
talking about. what are the potential consequences of producing tons of viral
matter?

are we already doing this?

and on a related note, i wonder how much viral mass a human gets when he/she
is sick from a nasty flu.

~~~
StavrosK
I guess the batteries will come with a warning: Do not disassemble battery
near tobacco plantations.

Relevant question: To recharge them, will you have to feed them?

~~~
btilly
_Relevant question: To recharge them, will you have to feed them?_

No.

Viruses do not have any sort of metabolism. They drift until they get into an
appropriate target cell, at which point they hijack it and make it make more
viruses. Therefore they do not need feeding at the best of times.

However in this case the viruses are being used as convenient particles that
will stick to the electrode. We do not care about the health and well-being of
the viruses at all.

~~~
StavrosK
Oh, true, I didn't realise they were viruses. Here's hoping we see a
commercially viable implementation soon, then!

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JoeAltmaier
I thought electrode surface area related to recharge Time, not capacity? Its a
current-density thing.

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julian37
Original article: <http://www.eng.umd.edu/media/release.php?id=71>

Video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8L-ur4masU>

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protomyth
So, if the batteries have 10x the capacity, what is the charge time?

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Rhapso
Yay! Looks cool! Now to wait 20 years for it to be implemented commercially.

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maeon3
After much deliberation from top management we have decided that the 10x
lithium battery device must be brought in on-time and under budget. Sincerely,
Thaddeus Plotz.

