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.

12 points

What irks me is that neither the article nor the press information of the university linked within the article mentions how much power one can draw from such a battery. They only mention that it could be used for RFID like devices, which is not exactly a precise information.

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7 points

15 Joules per 1g batteries over 24 hours. So around 0.416 watthours split linearly over 24 hours for a 100 g battery.

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4 points

The figure in the article was per gram of Carbon-14, which is only one ingredient of the battery, so I’d imagine that the 15J/24h is for a much larger assembly. It might have a better energy density than an RTG, but that’s already a low bar.

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11 points
*

Yall are thinking about personal computers.

How about diffused led light markings on every road, vehicle, in every public building. Motion and other sensors build in so they are only active when someone is near.

I hate current street lamps, super bright and on all night.

Give us tron *aesthetic and bring back dark nightsky.

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3 points

The dark nightsky is one of the most beautiful things in the world!

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2 points

Aesthetic, no?

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3 points

Subnautica vibes

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48 points

Yo this makes me think of the long lasting nuclear powered gadgets in the Foundation books

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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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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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5 points

they don’t mention size but it sounds like the kind of thing asimov had in the foundation series books (I have not seen the series).

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