this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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NASA’s incredible new solid-state battery pushes the boundaries of energy storage: ‘This could revolutionize air travel’::“We’re starting to approach this new frontier of battery research."

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[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Quick, let's sell this US funded tech to the Chinese or Japanese or Germans and not actually benefit from home grown research. This has happened so many times over the decades it's disgusting.

[–] Unquote0270@programming.dev 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wouldn't this benefit everyone? Presumably the implications are far wider and more important than who makes the most profit from it.

[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Wouldn't this benefit everyone?

Not if capitalists have anything to say about it.

[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then why shouldn't "everyone" be funding it??

Funny how the same people who (rightfully so) complain about privatizing profits but socializing risks, don't see a problem with research that will benefit everyone should maybe also be funded by everyone.

If one group is funding that research, then you better believe they should be the ones who overwhelmingly see it's benefits.

[–] Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Japanese government has a huge investment in battery tech alongside toyota and other Japanese companies. Solely to boost their economy in the long term

[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah when other countries do it, it is seen as a smart move to help their country and employ their own people for years to come.

When the US does it, it is somehow demonized as being "nationalist" or labeled as being greedy capitalism or some other negative term.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

You know you have the top comment right now, right? I think most everyone agrees that the US should be seeing the benefits of its publicly funded research - except some buttsore Europeans who will never miss an opportunity to piss on / armchair general the US.

[–] Snowplow8861@lemmus.org 8 points 1 year ago

Many large discoveries by research in Australia in universities and CSIRO didn't get funding they needed in Australia, and the engineers and researchers simply found funding and moved to the United States. Then the US benefited from all that education and university research investment simply because the economy and startup funding was better.

I guess you know America is on a downturn if they see the same thing happening to them.

[–] Kerfuffle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Quick, let’s sell this US funded tech to the Chinese or Japanese or Germans and not actually benefit from home grown research. This has happened so many times over the decades it’s disgusting.

If that's true, why aren't the Chinese, Japanese and Germans running around with amazing futuristic technology while "we're" over here still stuck in the stone age?

[–] pleasemakesense@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

This is what the US does to Swedish companies, only with the added benefit of running them into the ground (I'll never forgive what they did to Saab)

[–] AssholeDestroyer@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Yes that notably cheap Japanese and German labor is going to undercut Boeing.

[–] solstice@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never really understood why battery technology was so difficult until a friend put it in perspective for me. The only difference between a battery and a bomb is the rate they release their energy. Now I understand.

[–] zifk@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

This is similarly true to a container of gasoline. The difficult part is we've yet to find a battery tech that comes even close to the same energy density. Gasoline has nearly 12000 Wh/kg, compared to the 200-500 mentioned in the article.

[–] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I read this a bit ago. Hopefully all this tech eventually finds it way into aircraft.

My money "hope" is actually on smaller solid state batteries than can be recharged through the air. Similar to watt up tech and ossia.

With power over air you need less battery storage and work on keeping the battery from dropping.

Also I think best case scenario would be a massive reduction in the amount of planes flying.

High speed rail would be a better solution. Planes across seas and then rail travel on land.

If trains can get within speeds of air travel then we might be getting there.

Alas will be long dead before anything happens

[–] F4nt0M@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] dublet@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

power over air? 🤨

Tesla did it*.

~*:~ ~terms~ ~and~ ~conditions~ ~apply.~ ~Did~ ~not~ ~actually~ ~do~ ~it.~

[–] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you asking or ? What's the situation here ?

[–] DM_ME_SQUIRRELS@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They clearly are. So, care to explain what "power over air" is?

[–] afunkysongaday@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Plesse don't let it be wireless charging...

[–] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's just as it sounds. Just Google power over the air.

Lots of different applications for it. Mostly it's using some kind of wave to power devices from a distance. Currently it's on a few watts at a few meters.

Pretty shit but actually would be useful as your phone or devices would discharge slower and you could charge at the end of the day

With planes it would be a bit different. Fuck knows how they'd manage it. But still something to look it.

Similar to wireless charging. Some countries have roads that charge electric vehicles as they drive.

This would be similar

[–] Stoneykins@mander.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

The amount of research needed to make this technology work for the applications you are suggesting would be many times greater than the amount of research needed to just figure out better batteries. And. it would always be energy inefficient, so it would need an electricity surplus to be viable.

[–] ICanDoHardThings@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing. I struggle with feeling such dread about the climate crisis. It's very helpful to see posts with positive stories like this. Such exciting possibilities for reducing fossil fuel usage and still having regular air travel.

[–] AKADAP@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There seems to be yet another new battery technology that will save the world every day. And yet, they never become available to the public. I really wish we could ban them from announcing until they can mass produce the battery and sell it to the public. It is almost as bad as all those articles about the "flying car that will be available next year" articles that have been appearing in magazines since the 1950's.

[–] FlaminGoku@reddthat.com 4 points 1 year ago

The issue is generally scalability. Lots of cool concepts but hard to mass produce profitability.

As this is Nasa, it's subsidized, but there should be even more government money going into energy storage as that is the biggest hurdle for renewable energy.

[–] thecam@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Powering a plane with a battery sounds like a bad idea. Almost worst than EVs.

[–] TheBenCommandments@infosec.pub 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do you think EVs are a bad idea?

[–] thecam@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are worse on the environment then gasoline cars due to the rare earth materials needed to make a EV and it is harsher on the environment when it comes to dispose a EV once they reach end of life.

And all a EV car does is demand energy from a power plant which are either using coal or natural gas for the most part. The only "green" efficient power plant option out there is nuclear but no one wants to go nuclear.

If your concered about the climate and want to take that into account when getting a new vehicle. I always tell people to buy a used vehicle since it already exists and by driving a used car, your keeping it from being in a land fill and you save money buying used. Or the other best option is to get a bike or use public transportation.

And I do not see any difference with battery powered planes. I see more planes crashing due to using a new technology. Planes have come a long way and only gotten safer with years of engineering but by changing the power source to a battery over gasoline, unexpexted problems will like arise. Essentially do not fix what is not broken.

[–] TheBenCommandments@infosec.pub 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have a source for thinking that over the lifespan of the vehicle, that an EV is worse for the environment than a gasoline powered vehicle? Because I have multiple studies referenced in this article from the EPA stating the exact opposite.

The advantage of using an electric powertrain over any other is that the energy can be produced by any source of energy. Yes, right now, a lot of that’s coming from coal and natural gas, but even then, those power plants are WAY more efficient than the gas engines in cars and produce FAR less greenhouse gases source. Also, as countries transition from coal and gas to solar, wind, geothermal, and most critically and hopefully nuclear, the way the energy makes it from the earth to our cars can remain the same: the power grid.

Also, if everyone buys used cars, then that’ll solve the problem? Where do you think used cars come from? You think we should just keep making ICE vehicles and burning shit when we have plenty of new technologies which are being developed at breakneck pace that could actually make a huge difference in reducing emissions?

[–] thecam@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I do not have a souce that I can just copy and paste. However if I recall my source on this come from Patrick Moore who was a founder of Greenpeace or Alex Epstein. They both publish some great books on the subject of climate change.

[–] TheBenCommandments@infosec.pub 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t give a shit what the founder of Greenpeace or someone who has published books thinks. I care about scientific studies. I’ll be here to review them if/when you care to actually contribute to this conversation with verifiable facts, rather than just things you remember.

[–] thecam@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

Alrighty then, nice talking to you to? Books are a very reliabe source and their books have lots of scientific facts. Check them out sometime, espeically Patrick Moore's literature.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Patrick Moore denies climate change so he has zero credibility. Alex Epstein is a philosophy and computer science major. Neither of those people have credibility in the topic. I would suggest you find some others who have at least an inkling of credibility.

[–] thecam@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Patrick Moore has degrees and is well educated on the subject. Patrick Moore been to the arctic and to these places that claim to be suffering from climate change.

Alex Epstein is well educated on this climate stuff. He did not go to school for it but higher education is not required to understand this climate change stuff. Anyone can be self taught these days on many subjects and fields.

Just read the books when you get a chance, until them I not interested in this one-sided debate were everything needs to be from an "official" source. I been down this road before where I read peoples sources and shared mine and I am always wrong because you got to trust the science and if some questions it like me, I become labelled as a heretic to the climate change movement.

I get it though, you been told this stuff your whole life and how to always trust "official" sources. That is how many of us were raised. It is not your fault but man, the truth will set you free. I used to be worried that by the time I become adult or be in my middle years, I would inherit a earth that is uninhabitable. The amount of anxiety and depression this puts on one person is awful. However the world will be around just like it is today for a very long time. I can promise you that.