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Capacitors to Replace Batteries?

An anonymous reader writes "MIT's Joel Schindall plans to use old technology in a new way with nanotubes. 'We made the connection that perhaps we could take an old product, a capacitor, and use a new technology, nanotechnology, to make that old product in a new way.' Capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles created by two metal electrodes, and capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries, but the problem is that storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the battery's electrodes. MIT researchers solved this by covering the electrodes with millions of nanotubes. 'It's better for the environment, because it allows the user to not worry about replacing his battery,' he says. 'It can be discharged and charged hundreds of thousands of times, essentially lasting longer than the life of the equipment with which it is associated.'"

6 of 499 comments (clear)

  1. Oh great by tygerstripes · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sick of that bloody rabbit. Now it's going to last forever. Perfect.

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    Meta will eat itself
    1. Re:Oh great by Library+Spoff · · Score: 5, Funny

      Do you object to your wife\girlfriend using other vibrators or just that one?

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      Acid House saves Souls
    2. Re:Oh great by tygerstripes · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's the ears - they really chafe me. I wish she'd just have an affair like my other wives.

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      Meta will eat itself
    3. Re:Oh great by tygerstripes · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dammit. I have to stop clicking \. posted links when I'm at work...

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      Meta will eat itself
    4. Re:Oh great by Grab · · Score: 5, Funny

      Heard about what happened when they put the batteries in the Energiser Bunny backwards? He died from extreme sexual exhaustion - just kept coming, and coming, and coming...

  2. Re:Riverworld anyone? by Chelloveck · · Score: 4, Funny
    [...] back then they didn't have any use for electricity (no computers or Hello Kitty Vibrators) [...]

    It was a sad, sad time to be Hello Kitty.

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    Chelloveck
    I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.