Daily Archives: June 9, 2011

MIT Tea

Posted on by

No joke: This is the biggest battery breakthrough ever

The key to this new technology is that the metals that would normally be solids in a conventional battery have been broken into nano-size particles that are suspended in a liquid. The batteries, known as “semi-solid flow cells,” store their power in a black gunk that looks like motor oil, which has earned it the nickname “Cambridge Crude.” Because charge is stored in this liquid, it would be possible to “fuel up” an electric car with charged liquid electrolyte, just like fueling up at a conventional gas pump.

That’s pretty neat.

Shrinking Bob's Head

Posted on by

I posted a pendulum video a while back, right about the same time another movie was getting some exposure, and the latter has gotten a lot of attention on the blogohedron because it’s like, all professionally done, if you like that sort of thing. And my pocket-camera-video tryingtodoitallonmyownwithoutatripod effort came up a bit short (by a factor of about 20,000 so far)

Anyway, I see that some math has appeared: Wave Pendulum Analysis

Igor, Bring Me a Flat, Horizontal Surface

Posted on by

Carts always seem to be at a premium in the lab. They are supposed to be used to transport equipment — the whole reason there are wheels involved — but they often turn into squatters. They take up residence next to an experiment for an extended period of time, often hosting some equipment that’s also supposed to be temporary, such as an oscilloscope, and become the equivalent of a mobile home in a trailer park: Mobile only in name.

Which is why we got a couple of new carts. I assembled them and took the opportunity to give them the equivalent of vanity license plates:

The two numbers are the hyperfine frequency splittings of Cesium (on the left) and Rubidium. To four digits, at least.

The bulkiness of our electric drill/screwdriver meant that the casters blocked access to the screw-holes. I’m not sure who originally said If necessity is the mother of invention, then laziness must be its father, but I didn’t see any reason to tighten 32 big screws by hand, so I kludged this together with help from a few pieces from our socket-wrench set

Now we can race the carts around the hallway, until someone loads them up. Oops, too late.