As though they don’t already spend enough time welded to their cellphones , Microsoft Mobile has now collaborated with menswear fashion designer A. Sauvage to create a pair of "techno-trousers" that will mean that a man never needs to be parted from his cell, even to charge its battery.
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Could there be such a thing as a perpetual motion machine? Most scientists would say no, but there IS one that is over 300 years old, resting in a museum in Romania. If researchers could figure out how it works, it could pave the way to the creation of car batteries that never run out.
This battery, built by Vasile Karpen, has been operating without stop since 1950. When Karpen built it, he claimed it would last forever. He patented the design in 1922. On the Helium website, Terrence Aym quotes museum director Nicolae Diaconescu as saying, "I admit it’s also hard for me to advance the idea of an overunity generator without sounding ridiculous, even if the object exists."
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So many Christmas presents and toys use batteries, that many of us include them with the gift. Running out of the right batteries is a classic Christmas Day emergency. But new advances in thin-film lithium battery technology may soon make traditional alkaline batteries a thing of the past..
Rechargeable batteries can seem like a solution, except that they?re made from highly toxic heavy metals can pollute the environment. Others have a short storage life (a rapid “self-discharge” rate). If used improperly, some lose the ability to hold a full charge, a problem known as the “memory effect.”
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Oil companies can wave goodbye to their profits: Researchers in the U.K. have built a battery that runs on garbage that can provide electricity for your home. And in France, they’ve developed a car that runs on air. Right now, the fuel cell runs on sugar cubes, since they produce no waste when broken down, but researchers want to run it on carrot power next.
E. coli bacteria (the same kind that gives you a stomach ache) live inside the battery and produce enzymes that break down carbohydrates, releasing hydrogen atoms. The cell also contains chemicals that use these atoms to create voltage that can be used to power an electrical circuit. One cell can light a 40-watt bulb for eight hours on just a few teaspoons of sugar.
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