Batteries that Recharge in Seconds

A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have managed to make battery electrodes that can be 90% recharged within 2 minutes. If the method can be commercialised it could lead to laptops that recharge in minutes or mobile phones that can charge in 30 seconds.

The method used to make these ultrafast electrodes is compatible with many different types of batteries and the researchers have also used them to make nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the kind used in hybrid and electric cars.

The rate at which a battery can be charged up is normally limited by how fast ions and electrons can move from one end to the other. The researchers have used a nanostructured materials to try and find a way to decrease recharge time, and have now made progress using a highly porous metal "foam", coated with battery materials.

The Lithium-ion battery foam. (Credit: Paul Braun)

The method used for making these batteries, although it is complex should be easily applicable for the types of batteries commonly used in laptops and electric cars, and could be found in electrical appliances relatively soon.

SpaceX to launch the most powerful rocket since the Apollo era

This is a bit of a follow up from my last post, which was only a video.

The new rocket, called Falcon 9-Heavy, will have a lift off power of 17 meganewtons, which makes it the most powerful rocket since Saturn V, the "Moon Rocket". The rocket should be capable of putting 53 metric tonnes of payload into orbit, which is more than twice that of the space shuttle.

The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk has also said that the rocket would be made safe enought to launch people. It is for example designed to meet NASA human rating safety standards. It has structural safety margins that are 40% above the actual flight loads.
The performance of the rocket could make more ambitious space missions beyond the ISS possible, although SpaceX has stressed that an even bigger rocket would be needed for any manned missions to Mars, as the equipment required for any such mission is far heavier.

The Falcon 9-Heavy. (Image Credit: SpaceX)

The first flight will take place in 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base with future missions also planned at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

 Animation of the Falcon 9-Heavy.

Is pulling objects with light possible? How far away are we from tractor beams?

It is a known fact that light has the ability to push objects away. This is used in the concept of solar sails, which I explained in the first post on this blog.

In a new development though, researchers from Hong-Kong and China have calculated what is needed for a laser to pull instead of push. This can not be achieved with normal lasers, instead the researchers used what is known as a Bessel beam. They have a few rather unusual properties, for example they can re-assemble themselves. With conventional lasers, if you place an obstruction in their path they stop, whereas Bessel beams continue behind the object.
This allows the energy of the beam to be precisely controlled, and allows them to place more energy behind an object than in front of it, pushing it towards the source of the beam.

A close up, head on, view of a Bessel beam. (Credit: California Institute of Technology)

Rather than in science fiction however the effect is only predicted to occur over small distances, and will therefore mainly impact particle science. We unfortunately won't be able to use this to levitate or pull enemy space ships into our hangar, but it is fascinating none the less.

"Light can indeed pull a particle," the researchers wrote.

Multi-Core Voltage regulators could lead to better energy usage

Electronic apps today are expected to be ever smaller. Smart phones are expected to have GPS, w-lan, multiple apps running at the same time and be capable of playing music, but if the battery time is at 4 hours the phone has only so much use.

To promote energy efficiency Harvard graduate Wonyoung Kim has developed and demonstrated a new device with the potential to reduce the power usage of modern processing chips. The “multi-core voltage regulator” (MCVR), almost instantly responds to changes in demand of voltage, which has the potential to solve the mismatch between power and demand.

(Credit: Image courtesy of Wonyoung Kim, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences)

Imagine you’re listening to music your iPod MP3 player, the graphics and images processor doesn’t necessarily need power, and similarly if you’re looking at photos the audio processor or the hd video processor don’t need power. Essentially it is faster than other devices like it. It can decrease the voltage supplied by 1Volt in less than 20 nanoseconds. Additionally it uses an algorithm that recognises which parts of the processor aren’t in use at the moment and cuts power to them.

The fact that the device is on the chip means that even individual cores on one processor chip can be managed individually. The short distances between the MCVR and the processor chip further reduce time between changes in voltage.

The biggest supply currently for this device would be in the mobile phone market, although it could also be used in laptops to reduce the heat output of the processor which is currently the obstacle to slimmer laptops.

The device is also readily implemented in current chip designs, meaning that it doesn’t need radical changes in the way chips look, instead in can be incorporated in the chip design.

China develops train that can go at 1200 km/h

The model maglev train developed in a laboratory in China can reach supersonic speeds. Although the researchers admitted that the technology is still far away from being implemented the technology is expected to be in use within the next 10 years.

Similar technology is at the moment being researched in both Swizerland and the USA. Theoretically the trains could reach speeds of up to 20,000 km/h. This is over 16 times the speed of sound, an unimaginable velocity. Realistically however there is no application for such vast velocities.

The fastest any actual maglev train has ever run was 581 km/h, a record set in Japan in 2003.

There have been speculations about a theoretical transatlantic tunnel using this kind of technology. It is estimated that the train would spend 1/3 of the trip accelerating, 1/3 at peak speed, and a 1/3 decelerating because anything else would be uncomfortable or dangerous to passengers. The total time for the trip would be just under an hour and the highest possible speed is 5,000 km/h. Still many times faster than airplanes, although it shows that speeds of 20,000 km/h are unpractical.

A meglev train is coming out of the Pudong International Airport. (Credit: Alex Needham)