यह ब्लॉग खोजें

रविवार, 19 अप्रैल 2009

Batteries made of viruses can power cellphones to cars

Researchers are relying on viruses to build futuristic low cost batteries that will power cars, cellphones and other electronic devices.These new 'viral' batteries will match the most advanced versions being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars, besides powering electronic devices, said Angela Belcher, the MIT materials scientist who led the research team. The new batteries could be synthesised at and below room temperature and require no harmful organic solvents, and the materials are non-toxic. In a traditional battery, lithium ions flow between a negatively charged anode, usually graphite, and the positively charged cathode, usually cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. Three years ago, an MIT team led by Belcher reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire. In the latest work, the team focussed on building a highly powerful cathode to pair up with the anode, said Belcher, MIT professor of materials science, engineering and bio-engineering. Cathodes are more difficult to build than anodes because they must be highly conductive to be a fast electrode, however, most candidate materials for cathodes are non-conductive. In a bid to overcome this hurdle, Gerbrand Ceder, MIT professor of materials science and associate professor Michael Strano of chemical engineering, genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then grab hold of carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conductive material. The viruses are a common bacteriophage, which infect bacteria but are harmless to humans, said an MIT release. The prototype is packaged as a typical coin cell battery, but the technology allows the assembly of very lightweight, flexible and conformable batteries.

Read more...
-->-->

शनिवार, 18 अप्रैल 2009

What they Want

Over 14 crore voters in 124 Lok Sabha seats across the country had their chance to vote in phase one of the Lok Sabha elections 2009. There have been quite a few instances of violence in Naxal infested areas in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhatisgarh. At least 8 policemen have been killed. If there is any one defining aspect of what happened on Thursday, it is the violence in Naxal hit areas. There were more than dozen attacks today in Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Seventeen people have been killed in all. The attacks took place in Dantewada in Chhatisgarh, Latehar in Jharkhand and the Malkangiri districts of Orissa. Naxals opened fire on polling stations in all these areas. At Malkangiri in Orissa, the Maoisits blocked roads and cut off polling booths. They snatched voting machines at two booths in Dantewara. In addition to the firing in Jharkhand, six jawans were killed in a landmine explosion near Latehar.

Khoj India TV

">