Nuclear Laptop?
HA! What a concept. Nuclear powered laptops!
Take a read at the latest in battery technology:
Cornell News
So would you feel comfortable with nuclear activity resting on your lap?
\ Fellows
Take a read at the latest in battery technology:
Cornell News
So would you feel comfortable with nuclear activity resting on your lap?
\ Fellows
Comments
Having a nuclear-powered laptop would negate the need for backlit keyboards. The whole thing glows in the dark!
Originally posted by Akumulator
I forsee a rise in testicular cancer.
It will be an only-chick laptop
The problem I see with these particular devices is their extremely low power output. They can put out micro- or maybe milliwatts of power for maybe a decade or two, but the amount of material needed for practical laptop power levels would be huge. Lithium-ion based chemical batteries are eminently more useful at the moment. Long term, there's a lot of refinement to go before these nuclear devices are practical for everyday consumer-level products.
Originally posted by TJM
People seem to have an irrational fear of radioactivity that goes far beyond the actual hazards involved.
Imagine those parents who are suing a school system for (gasp!) exposing their precious little children to dangerous WiFi-otron rays, if they got wind of nuclear laptops.
Originally posted by shetline
Imagine those parents who are suing a school system for (gasp!) exposing their precious little children to dangerous WiFi-otron rays, if they got wind of nuclear laptops.
I'm still waiting for people to start sprouting new arms out of the side of their heads due to the intense radiation exposure from the transmitters of those new-fangled "cell phone" thingies!
About 3 years ago I remember posting a topic on an theory I had for batteries powered by a radioisotopes beta emmissions. I seem to remember I got shot down at the time,
WOULD LOVE TO PULL IT UP AND FEEL SMUG!!!!
Originally posted by MarcUK
Is there any way to access the old AI, before the great blackout??
About 3 years ago I remember posting a topic on an theory I had for batteries powered by a radioisotopes beta emmissions. I seem to remember I got shot down at the time,
WOULD LOVE TO PULL IT UP AND FEEL SMUG!!!!
There is more chance, to have nuclear laptops tomorrow, than to access the post you made in the old AI
Anywyas there is some archives anyway of the web. You can try ...
Originally posted by Programmer
Did anyone even read the article? They are using materials which radiate only beta particles (i.e. electrons) specifically to avoid harmful radiation. Its not like they'll be using 4lbs of U235.
You are right, but knowing the legislation about nuclear materials in our occidental countries, i doubt that it will be a cake-walk to have the authorization to use it in laptops.
Perhaps the military should use this tech first.
Originally posted by Powerdoc
You are right, but knowing the legislation about nuclear materials in our occidental countries, i doubt that it will be a cake-walk to have the authorization to use it in laptops.
Perhaps the military should use this tech first.
The military probably already is using it. They get all sorts of cool stuff like that before the public knows about it.
Yeah, they have nukyular powered laptops in their F-19s. Yep...
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
The military probably already is using it. They get all sorts of cool stuff like that before the public knows about it.
Yeah, they have nukyular powered laptops in their F-19s. Yep...
Ok... let us toss in some logic...
1) The US owns nuclear powered subs.
2) Nuclear powered subs need computer systems to opperate.
3) The US NAVY just bought a shit load of Xserves from Apple to use in their NPS (nuclear powered subs).
4) Laptops are also used in NPS due to space constraints.
To sum up... to opperate the computers/laptops need power... which comes form the sub's power grid which is nuclear.
So indirectly the US Forces does own nuclear powered laptops, computers, and Xserves.
Crazy.
Originally posted by Programmer
Did anyone even read the article? They are using materials which radiate only beta particles (i.e. electrons) specifically to avoid harmful radiation. Its not like they'll be using 4lbs of U235.
My thoughts exactly.
Anyway, the thing doesn't actually produce electricity in its basic form. It produces motion, so it's more like an engine which can produce electricity if coupled to a generator of some form.
....or motion!!!
Those "World's smallest radiocontrolled car!" which get spamvertized constantly, just got a whole lot smaller.
Originally posted by Programmer
Did anyone even read the article? They are using materials which radiate only beta particles (i.e. electrons) specifically to avoid harmful radiation. Its not like they'll be using 4lbs of U235.
Lies, lies, lies. The nuclear power industry does nothing but lie. Didn't you ever see that movie with Jane Fonda about the evils of the nuclear power industry? Haven't we learned anything from the Simpsons? Nuclear power is evil and will destroy us all. We don't need to read the article to know that such devices are evil. I blame George bush for solar flares.
On a serious note, Programmer is quite correct. Materials that emit beta radiation are really not the largest health hazard because beta radiation can't penetrate a piece of paper, let alone a PB case. Just don't swallow your atomic battery or you are going to have some serious health issues.
Of course, such batteries will never make it to the marketplace. The simple reason is that we (quite rightly) want to prevent the proliferation of low level radioisotopes because there are some deranged loonies out there who would love to make dirty bombs out of them. Oh, and best of luck getting your radioisotope powered laptop on an airplane.
Originally posted by Yevgeny
Of course, such batteries will never make it to the marketplace. The simple reason is that we (quite rightly) want to prevent the proliferation of low level radioisotopes because there are some deranged loonies out there who would love to make dirty bombs out of them. Oh, and best of luck getting your radioisotope powered laptop on an airplane.
There are actually radioactive isotopes in Smoke Detectors already. Since this battery is "microscopic" there's probably even less.
Originally posted by the cool gut
There are actually radioactive isotopes in Smoke Detectors already. Since this battery is "microscopic" there's probably even less.
The radioisotopes in smoke detectors are for detecting smoke, not powering the unit itself. Hence why you have to replace the batteries.
A laptop with a radioisotope battery would not use a microscopic ammount, if you could even make such a power supply that would be smaller than the laptop itself. All of NASA's deep space probes have radioisotope batteries and the wattage they produce is small (but the lifetime is large). You would have enough radioisotopes in a laptop batter to make a decent dirty bomb with.
Originally posted by the cool gut
There are actually radioactive isotopes in Smoke Detectors already. Since this battery is "microscopic" there's probably even less.
Combo drives also have a small amount of radioactivity in the laser mechanism, IIRC
I've heard anecdotes of at least one case of US Customs stopping a business traveller because the hypersensitive Geiger systems installed since 9/11 tweaked over his laptop. Perhaps this happened immediately post-9/11. Perhaps it was a 'false positive', but they would not let him enter the US with clicks on the detector that were coming from the laptop's optical drive. He was instructed to either leave the drive in Canada and pick it up on his return, or if no modular bay, leave the laptop.
while hunting for links to support this (none found yet), came across "freaktech.org"
chock full of actual, if headbending science inventions from nano-drills to chip-powersources to ...
damn... <off to read more>