How better batteries will bring us amazing gadgets

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2356333.ece

Imagine a personal computer the size of your mobile phone, capable of doing everything your current laptop does, as well as making calls, taking photos and playing your music and videos. You wouldn't have to squint at a tiny screen or peck out letters using two fingers on minuscule buttons. Instead, a miniature projector would beam a crystal-clear virtual monitor on to any flat surface or send images via Bluetooth to a screen in your glasses. Another would cast a virtual keyboard on your desktop.

It would be an amazingly useful device - perhaps the most essential gadget in our digital lives, and it's not that far from reality. Most of the technologies have already been demonstrated. But there is one problem: the battery would be so large you'd have to carry it around in its own backpack.

But hope is at hand. In labs around the world, research teams are racing to build better batteries that are safer, smaller, lighter and longer-lasting than our current power-packs. Some of these scientists are trying to perfect new types of fuel cells that turn methanol and water into hydrogen and then into electricity. You may have heard of the fuel-cell idea - car manufacturers such as Honda and even Morgan are touting next-generation vehicles that convert hydrogen into electricity to power the motor. For mobile electronics engineers the goal is to miniaturise this technology from car-size to phone size. It's quite a challenge but they're getting close. Others are building microscopic nano-batteries and experimenting with polymer film to mould batteries into any shape. Then there are those who use chemicals such as zinc or silver to improve batteries' energy density and charging properties.

All of them share one basic belief: that relentlessly increasing the potency of our microchips without thinking about their energy supply makes about as much sense as building gas-guzzling cars just as oil supplies are running out.

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Same killing power, but only 8W.

And the beam makes your skin look pasty and unhealthy.

...although they still don't work very well in the fridge.

Now I gotta clean the Diet Coke off the old one . . .

techno abuse...

:evilgrin:

:evilgrin:

Unpleasant, but true. Batteries will need to be handled with increasing caution.