The world’s first nuclear-powered battery, which uses a radioactive isotope embedded in a diamond, could power small devices for thousands of years, scientists say.

The nuclear battery uses the reaction of a diamond placed close to a radioactive source to spontaneously produce electricity, scientists at the University of Bristol in the U.K. explained in a Dec. 4 statement. No motion — neither linear nor rotational — is required. That means no energy is needed to move a magnet through a coil or to turn an armature within a magnetic field to produce electric current, as is required in conventional power sources.

The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said.

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34 points

Or how every time you enter some ancient ruins on some game, EVERYTHING is still working despite not having seen a person in a millenia

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11 points

If video games have taught me anything, it’s that ghost towns and ancient ruins apparently require less maintenance and upkeep than my own fucking house.

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3 points

The secret is that rats are committed Luddites. They chew through wires, but maintain and restore the elegant mechanisms of times long past.

You may expect that a few rats couldn’t roll a 6 ton stone boulder back up a hill, but rats are also capable of growing to very different sizes depending on their environment.

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12 points
*

walk up to abandoned building in STALKER 2

30+ years after Chernobyl

the lights are on

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9 points

enter dangerous bunker overridden by monsters in STALKER 2

someone locked up the bunker to contain the monsters, been like that for 10 years

find fresh sausage and bread in a locker

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6 points
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Fresh!? Blyat!

These sausages have been seasoned by Chernobyl, blin!

Best seasoning in the zone, Stalgar! Puts hair on your tumors!

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3 points

I can get a sausage from Lidl that claims it’s safe to eat for two years with no refrigeration, so by lowering my standards to the levels of someone who’d go into a bunker like that, I could probably make the claim out was fresh after a decade.

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8 points

And torches are lit

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6 points

's nuclear fire

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7 points

Well yeah they perfected those nuclear diamond batteries

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