| Some New Tech Toys | 1 comment |
 13 Feb 2006 @ 10:33, by Raymond PowersThis is all from Gizmodo MIT Working on Nanotube Batteries, Could Be a Breakthrough In the search for that holy grail, the everlasting battery, not much has been accomplished over the 200 years since old man Volta rolled out the first crude battery back in the dark ages. Now those whiz kids at MIT are using nanotube structures to create new super batteries by using energy storage doodads called ultracapacitors. These devices do their magic by storing electrical fields at the atomic level. Bear in mind that ultracapacitors are nothing new, but what is new is making them small enough to put into regular-sized batteries. Best of all, the MIT researchers are saying these nanotube batteries can be made using ordinary manufacturing methods. No word on how much more energy storage capacity these whiz-bang batteries will have than the conventional ones we know and love to hate. If these scientists can pull this off, standby world—you’re about to be changed forever. --------------------------------------- You’ve Been Slimed. Now Get Back on the Road The company that should consider a new name for itself, Slime, is offering Mini Smart Spair, a palm-sized microcompressor that can pump up your tire after you’ve sealed it with Slime, a special substance that the company says is made of “environmentally friendly fibers, binders, polymers and proprietary congealing agents that inter-twine and clot to seal punctures up to 1/4 of an inch.” The micro-compressor plugs into your 12-volt car battery. Once you perform that roadside repair, then you can make your way to a place where you can fix that tire properly. The kit includes eight ounces of the legendary Slime, ready to seal up anything  |