Even with the steep decline in the price of Lithium, this seems important.
https://newatlas.com/energy/natron-sodium-ion-battery-production-startt/
May 3, 2024
Even with the steep decline in the price of Lithium, this seems important.
https://newatlas.com/energy/natron-sodium-ion-battery-production-startt/
September 22, 2023
Amazing work on an already existing infrastructure. As CRISPR technology spreads, we should expect more farming inspired materials and food. Maple trees that grow apples? Cherries? Synthetic meat? A tree based agriculture would be a lot better than what we have now….
https://newatlas.com/materials/silkworms-spider-genes-spin-fibers/
August 5, 2023
I can honestly say I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime….
February 27, 2023
This is very interesting. I can think of multiple ways this material could revolutionize components.
https://newatlas.com/materials/new-quantum-state-conductivity-billion-percent-increase/
January 23, 2023
I wrote about electric vertical and take off aircraft a while ago. A great deal of progress has been made.
Vertical Aviation has over a thousand preorders and a deal with American Airlines. Joby Aviation has a deal with Delta and are getting a lot of interest from the military. Beta Technology has been flying their aircraft, but are still working out the vertical flight systems. Archer has a deal with United Airlines and is working on a large aircraft. They have been flying a two seater. Volocopter and Ehang both have short range (no wings) aircraft and are looking to fly them soon commercially. Lilium has a 1/3 size aircraft they are flying and have a deal with Saudi Arabia for certification and flight.
I am invested in Joby, Veritical, Archer and Lilium. Vertical has a thousand preorders and a deal with American Airlines and is less than 3$ a share….
January 23, 2023
Unlike the eVTOL companies which are trying to forge new markets with new technology, Eviation made an electric plane for a known market. The 8-10 person city to city aircraft. They have more than 2 billion in sales. After this article came out they have continued to sell planes. Not bad for having flown once…
https://www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com/news/eviation-alice-orders-surpass-2-billion/
January 23, 2023
Tesla keeps making amazing technology. Unlike all the companies that try half measures, they always take it all the way. Even if it makes the product three years late:)
https://fb.watch/idDiIxkUlZ/?mibextid=qC1gEa
November 26, 2022
I have posted multiple times about CRISPR. It really is one of the more important technologies being pushed forward.
While energy production and storage can radically change our society, CRISPER can radically change humans for the better.
Researchers are now using the process to remove larger sections of damaged DNA.
https://newatlas.com/biology/paste-crispr-gene-editing-tool/
October 6, 2022
April 2, 2022
Discovered by the Chinese, they are being manufactured by a company in Belgium. Unfortunately, the company seems to be private…. They are in production.
March 9, 2022
One of the big issues for fusion is that the massive magnets that hold plasma in place to create fusion are copper and use a lot of energy. They have now found a new magnetic material that uses a lot less energy.
https://news.mit.edu/2021/MIT-CFS-major-advance-toward-fusion-energy-0908
March 5, 2022
CRISPR has the potential to fix all DNA conditions humans (and animals) have. So I keep a sharp eye out for progress on the process. This looks like a big one.
https://newatlas.com/science/crispr-gene-editing-error-correction-protein/
June 1, 2021
They can’t hold as much energy as Li-On. But they recharge 10x faster and have no heat issues. And are lighter.
Using these in cars would lessen range, but allow quick “fill ups” at recharging sites. The batteries would also allow much greater power recovery from regenerative braking. Right now only 20% of the potential electricity is recovered.
For aircraft the cells are lighter and simpler since they don’t have heat issues.
Used in conjunction with existing Li-On batteries, this technology could make existing platforms much more flexible.
In the story they complain the infrastructure is not there to support the batteries and there high charge rate. Which is just silly. For maximizing the charge rate sites will just have to have a block of these batteries already charged….. The battery set would act as a accumulator. Tesla has already done this on a massive scale in Australia.
https://newatlas.com/energy/gmg-graphene-aluminium-ion-battery/
January 22, 2021
December 25, 2020
They say they have them and will start producing in 2022. Flexible ceramic? Isn’t that clay?
October 20, 2020
If you haven’t been paying attention to what Space-X is doing, you are making a mistake. They are pushing rocketry into early aviation level use and drastically cutting cost with mass production, economy of size and reusing the rockets…..
October 20, 2020
Electric Vertical And Take Off (EVTOL) aircraft are coming into their own. They have less critical/wear parts than helicopters and fly much more efficiently than Helicopters and the Osprey. They need to make this Hybrid to give it redundancy and range, but it has taken the industry years just to get to this point….
October 20, 2020
This will change a great deal for the electric vehicle industry. Only about 20% of the regenerative braking energy is captured. The batteries just don’t absorb it fast enough..
July 14, 2020
https://newatlas.com/medical/crispr-enzyme-mutation-more-precise/
They are to the point of perfecting the process with this new accuracy improvement. This could literally spell the end of genetic errors in the genome. Now comes the debate on morality of generic improvements….. To me the debate on improving ones genetic makeup should be left open to the individual. We have people who have perfect memory. High intelligence. High efficiency and long lasting organs. People should be allowed to strive to that if the science is right.
February 23, 2020
Super-capacitors have the ability to absorb and discharge amperage very quickly.
Much quicker than batteries.
So for things like regenerative breaking and sudden acceleration they are a needed component in any electric or hybrid vehicle.
With this breakthrough, we may be seeing them integrated into cars on a much wider basis…..
https://newatlas.com/energy/supercapacitor-density-breakthrough/
April 16, 2019
This will change everything. This will destroy any reservation anyone has about using the process.
https://newatlas.com/crispr-rna-hairpin-lock-precise/59310/
February 5, 2019
Helicopters are obsolete.
The X2 and Valor are the last of their kind. It only a matter of time before they figure this out….
These are all electric. The replacements for current aviation VTOL will be hybrid.
https://www.aurora.aero/pav-evtol-passenger-air-vehicle/
https://www.wired.com/story/beta-ava-flying-car-aviation/?mbid=email_onsiteshare
December 10, 2017
And the software that was created outperformed software created by humans in every metric.
We are on the cusp of a software revolution. Maybe Microsoft could use it to stop sucking so badly…:)
November 24, 2017
Instant translation that does not need an internet connection. This will revolutionize not only tourism but allow small and mid-sized businesses to conduct business without the cost of a human translator.
Much like GPS this starts out with dedicated hardware. Once the big boys get involved, you will just download it to your smart phone.
November 17, 2017
This is the first time trying. Even if they have partial success it is still a a big step.
Let’s hope for it goes well.
https://gizmodo.com/in-a-major-first-scientists-edit-dna-within-the-human-1820469921
July 12, 2016
http://www.popsci.com/why-are-scientists-shocked-by-results-this-cancer-treatment-trial
April 30, 2016
There seems to be a new announcement about energy storage breakthroughs daily. It all has to be taken with a grain of salt until they actually have a product made outside the lab in some slow production facility for sale.
While this is still in the lab, what they are claiming and what they say they have done really is amazing. It’s a major university so I give them a little more credence.
While they don’t go into how this effects energy charge-discharge rate, just making batteries that can charge and discharge a couple hundred thousand times is going to radically change the economics of electric transportation and storage.
It will make electric cars and wind power happen a day after they start making these things….
Update: This article is better than the first.
http://www.popsci.com/researchers-accidentally-make-batteries-last-400-times-longer
January 10, 2016
November 8, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daioWlkH7ZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRXymDoYoWQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daioWlkH7ZI
November 8, 2014
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/06/russ-george-blogged-about-fraser-river.html
August 17, 2013
Any breakthrough in farming, either in equipment or plant development, has a huge impact on our society. We pay farmers not to grow food in the US because they make so much it becomes worthless. We use plants to make fuel. Farming has a huge impact on our natural environment. Not just in the land used but also in the process itself.
In the US we use a large amount of Natural Gas derived nitrogen based fertilizer to boost our crops. This can have negative environmental consequences due to it running off into our rivers and lakes.
There are plants that can take nitrogen out of the air. They have a bacteria which in a symbiotic relationship with the plant benefits them both. Now a researcher named Professor Cocking has found a strain of this bacteria that when applied to the seed of any plant will make it nitrogen fixing.
This will have a really big impact on farming and the seed industry. Take a look:
http://www.gizmag.com/n-fix-nitrogen-fixation/28482/
Good stuff.
February 27, 2013
If you scroll down a bit you will see the article “Graphene makes a great superconductor”. In the article the University of Texas found that Graphene has the properties to make a great supercapacitor. But they do not explain how to do it. The process.
Well some folks at UCLA have found how the process and it looks pretty straight forward:
http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/science/more-good-news-on-those-carbon-supercapacitors.html
Here is the Video:
In the first article they say it can hold as much as a lead acid battery. Lets make the assumption that they are measuring based on space used. In other words you take a lead acid battery and in the volume of space it takes up you can make a capacitor(s) that have the same amount of energy storage. With this in mind I can give some insight. With this capacity your phone and computer will still be Lithium-Ion. LI-On (Lithium-Ion) batteries are light and holds a lot of energy. Just about when you need to replace the battery is about the time you are thinking of getting a new one. So unless they make the capacitor a lot better I can see things staying the same. Even with the capacitors super fast recharge rate.
But for cars and aircraft I see a swift change. Because wight matters. And quick recharge rate matters when dealing with electric cars and Hybrid aircraft. Take the battery in the Chevy Volt. It is quite large. One of the reasons it is so large is they found that if they only charged it 80% and discharged to 30% of battery capacity so it would make the batteries last twice as long. So in effect they are not using all the battery capacity in exchange for longevity. If you swapped out the LI-ON with these capacitors you would still not get as much energy storage but it would take five minutes to recharge. So storage is not such an issue.
The Volt is also fairly complex. The Li-On batteries have to be heated and cooled to keep them working efficiently. I do not think these capacitors would have such issues. Granted extreme weather can cause issues with any system. But batteries being a chemical reaction are effected a great deal by temperature.
For aircraft I see this being an important step also. For planes and helicopters electric motors as the prime mover has advantages in power and simplicity. But the drawbacks right now are too great due to battery weight and loss of efficiency (motors and generators usually have a 10-15% inefficiency). But this could be a turning point. With light weigh capacitors which store the same amount as lead-Acid batteries and have a very long life it may be better to have a aircraft that has one engine for power production, one for backup and batteries which are used for high power demand maneuvers. Like taking off.
Of course this is all speculation at this point. We will have to wait to see what the amp-hours are when they come out with an actual product.
I hope we do not have too long to wait…
Update: 16 August 2013: Another lab is having similer results with Graphene super capacitors. This leads me to belive the breakthrough is not just a process, but the material itself. This is a good thing. No one compnay will be able to lock in this technology. Take a look:
http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-based-supercapacitor/28579/
February 17, 2013
I am a big believer in new processes. Processes created into efficient factory’s are the reason we have the modern cheap world we have today. Factories make the obscenely expensive into common.
This new process is in its infancy. I hesitate to put it up until their new mini-factory is actually in production for a while. But it works in the lab so that means they should be able to scale it up into a factory, so I am posting it.
If this works as advertised it will have a huge effect on our society.
November 5, 2011
Researchers have been studying why a caloric restrictive diet makes people healthy and live longer. Resveratrol has been found to work (it is an ingredient in red wine and it is still in trials with a lot of back and forth on its merits) in making people age better. But they are not sure why.
Now a new study finally has found the enzymes responsible for caloric restrictive diets making people healthy:
http://www.gizmag.com/aging-process-enzyme-identified/20359/
This is very exciting. This discovery could make us all healthier and age better. Not sure if this could be a supplement. Can you eat an enzyme and have it get into your blood stream through the digestive tract? Not sure, not my area of expertise. But I will keep an eye on this one.
-Wanting to get old Gracefully (no drool) and die in my sleep Dennis
September 24, 2011
While this technology could just keep getting better, they have hit a milestone. The cables they make now are as good as copper.
This is very exciting. For the aviation industry this could be a boon. Airbus is using aluminum wiring in some of their aircraft for weight reasons, even though aluminum does not transmit electricity as well as copper. If the cost is even in the ballpark, we could see the aviation industry switching quite rapidly.
Obviously there are cost, longevity and maintenance issues that will have to be resolved. Production issues as well.
But the benefits are so obvious, I see a lot of money being thrown at this to get it into production and into vehicles.
Update 1/8/13:
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509766/nanotubes-turned-into-super-fibers/
June 12, 2011
Steel has been around for a while. With all the people who have worked on it over the centuries and the large institutions who have focused on it, you would not expect a breakthrough right now.
Well you would be wrong. A small mill in Detroit, SFP Works, has found a way to make the strongest steel 7% stronger. That may not sound like a lot, but it is. Here are the links:
I find it fascinating that they claim it would do the job of aluminum (same strength) and be lighter. This is going to change things. Really fast.
Hold on!
-Lover of small modified work trucks Dennis
May 24, 2011
Once again we see a new process that will make a known material a real player. The article is well written, so I will let it speak for itself:
This could have wide ranging implications. Just the fact that it brings light weight with great strength without corrosion problems is just amazing.
Hopefully this new process will bring the cost of the material, and it ease of manufacture, into the realm of making it an everyday item.
I can think of many uses right off the top of my head. Artificial knees, hip’s? Engine blocks? Golf Clubs? Train wheels? The list is endless….
It may take time, but this may be transformational technology. I guess we shall see.
-Tech Dennis
March 12, 2011
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/03/carbon-fibre_composites
December 9, 2010
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/26852/?p1=A1
November 16, 2010
February 26, 2010
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml
November 30, 2009
http://www.gizmag.com/implant-cancer-vaccine/13462/
September 23, 2009
http://www.gizmag.com/adding-graphene-to-titanium-dioxide/12917/
Update: September 17th 2010: Trial runs and production partners forming.
September 20, 2009
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-09/fords-turbo-charged-ecoboost-engine
July 27, 2009
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23073/
http://www.jouleunlimited.com/
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39488/
http://www.jouleunlimited.com/news/2010/joule-biotechnologies-secures-pilot-site-renewable-solar-fuel
http://www.jouleunlimited.com/news/2010/joule-closes-30-million-funding-round
-Tech Dennis
July 17, 2009
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23009/
http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/17/could-exxon-go-green-oil-giant-invests-in-algae-biofuel-research/
January 12, 2009
http://www.popsci.com/node/21610
Here is a link to his site: http://cyclonepower.com/