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MIT Building Batteries Using Viruses
thefickler writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are now using viruses to build cathodes for Lithium-Ion batteries. Three years ago these same researchers found they could build an anode using viruses. Creating both the anode and cathode using viruses will make batteries easy to build. This nanoscale battery technology will allow batteries to be lightweight and to 'take the shape of their container' rather than creating containers for the batteries, which could open up new possibilities for car and electronics manufacturers."
Now there's a whatcouldpossiblygowrong article if I ever saw one...
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
mines? You definitely want to strap on a helmet before going in.....
Monstar L
...HUMAN containers!!!
"The Matrix", with its human Duracell (product placement!) batteries, is here!
[Oh, this is too cool: The captcha word for me to post this comment is: "unplug"! LOL!]
Since it doesn't actually do anything else of note, why not use it as an energy source?
Now we just need a /.-comment powered battery, that takes in comments from /. and converts them to pure energy.
This is scarier in the case of biological viruses though... imagine a battery breaking open and leaking HIV or Influenza all over the place..
This gives the warning: "battery contains toxic materials" a whole new meaning.
will power your vibrator? Herpes? You just scratch it to recharge?
What?
The body of this one could use some serious work. Cool tech, though.
If your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail.
...bipolar
End anonymous moderation and posting on
After an accidental viral infection at MIT labs, the new hero can now do things that only batteries could do before! His given name, Melvin C. Cooper emerges now as "D u r a M e l !"
According to the article, these virii only infect bacteria. Unless they mutate. I'm fairly certain that they have controls to prevent that kind of thing. Plus, phage based medications turned out to not to have a high chance of fatalities.
After an accidental viral infection at MIT labs, a lowly test rat can now do things that only batteries could do before! Now the adorable electric rodent has been named "P I K A C H U"
Fixed.
This shit was retarded when it was in French.
Its still completely random and completely retarded.
Coincidentally, I just finished watching the anime series 'Black Jack 21' and the plot revolves around a virus used as a battery and all the problems it causes.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Wonderful ! Now, instead of having some standard battery sizes (AA, AAA and so on), we are going tu have as many different shapes of batteries as there are products, not only between manufacturers but within the line of the same manufacturer (for the same reason that Gillette has 10 different shapes of blades, or than portables PCs have 200+ type of batteries, or that we hare 20 or so different AC/DC transformers at home), so you will have to buy every time a given manufacturer's battery and throw it away rather than reuse it on a later apparatus.
I am afraid that while technically we have a progress here, our production organization wil make it a regression; it something that happens from time to time.
Signature omitted in order to save space. Thanks for your understanding.
market it as sustainable, green, and battling climate change it will sell! Did I miss any other catch-phrases?
"The advantage of using genetics is that things can be made better and better," Belcher said. "You are not stuck with a particular material; you have selection and evolution on your side because it can be genetically engineered."
I personally don't know about if/how a bacteriophage can attack other living things, but...
like another poster said we have bacteria that are inside us...
and they are more numerous than our cells.
No virus, no battery
The MIT release listed the paper authors as a group of Korean principals, but the three interviewees are rather caucasian in appearance.
The Koreans must have been out for kimchi when the reporters showed up ;-)
Yeah cos people are buying 5 or 6 iPhones a month now because of the irreplacable battery.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
But couldn't someone make a battery by using two types of bacteria? Have the first bacteria feed off of chemical A, while producing chemical B as waste. Have the second chemical feed off of chemical B while producing chemical A as waste. Make the fuel cell feed off of either chemical, and you've got a very long lasting mobile energy source.
Last month's battery which could recharge in 2 seconds was way better than this.
Nothing further. Or, is this about intestinal fortitude...
There is nothing to FEAR but NOTHING itself; and I fear there is a whole lot of nothing going on. --scorpivs
Cool, so now I can get a Windows box with conficker preloaded.
You mean the next time my computer catches a virus, it could infect me as well? And this virus will work even if I run Linux?
Everything I know is a lie!!!! >_
Someone stop this thing before it infects 12 million PCs!
Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
For some reason I remembered the movie "The Matrix" now.
Where can I find some of what you're smoking?
"Lead authors of the Science paper are Yun Jung Lee and Hyunjung Yi, graduate students in materials science and engineering. Other authors are Woo-Jae Kim, postdoctoral fellow in chemical engineering; Kisuk Kang, recent MIT PhD recipient in materials science and engineering; and Dong Soo Yun, research engineer in materials science and engineering."
LOL.
Guess where you're going to be buying all your batteries from when you replace oil with electricity.
Deleted
Yes, "I'm fairly certain that they have controls to prevent that kind of thing. "
Add this to the list of potential epitaphs.
So I guess the battery will start in the gas tank, wrap itself around the radiator, and plug directly into the back of the radio.
I'm pretty sure that in ten years time, I'll have to take my car to the dealer to get the battery changed.
Get off my lawn!
this sounds like good news for windows notebooks. mahahahaha!
Honey, could you take the batteries to the doctor this morning? I think they might have a virus.
I for one, welcome our Lithium Virus (tm) overloards.