Nano Power for Nano Devices Patented

lperdue writes "Scientists at the Univ. Oklahoma at Tulsa have come up with a microscopic battery just a thousandth of a millimetre across ... and rated at a millionth of a milliamp. It's still a lab experiment, but then so was the semiconductor at one time."

Utility?

[shfted!]

Lemme guess... we'll need a battery of these things to do anything useful.

Re:Utility?

[AlgebraicSpore]

I think the better thing is that you could spread it out over a thin sheet instead of making the battery shapes of right now. Like you could cover the bottom of a laptopcase with them. That is just my two cents.

On behalf of the metric system

[blacklite001]

That's a micrometer and a nanoamp.

Really, that's what prefixes are for, you can do better than that. Thanks.

Re:On behalf of the metric system

[Directrix1]

Thank you, that was bugging the hell out of me too.

Re:On behalf of the metric system

[lperdue]

yes, I know you are right and I agree. I was using the same units as the original piece from Nature ... I would guess that Nature was going for the largest possible comprehension level -- aka "dumbing it down."

It raises issues of journalistic judgement. I assume that slashdotters will all understand micro- nano- and pico- but what happens when we get into femto- and atto-? Likewise, we know mega- giga- and tera-, but what about peta- and exa-?

Again, you're correct but I think that Nature opted for maximu

Re:On behalf of the metric system

[sketerpot]

Alright, I'm sick of people not knowing the metric system. (Rant coming on...)

I think that some basic knowledge of the metric system is just one of those things that people need to know. It isn't that hard! Atto- through exa- is a decent range to know, and for most values you will be covered. Conversion is trivial if you stick to normal units like kilo- and milli-, and don't get into units like centi- or deci-, and my TI-82 even has a mode to give scientific notation answers with convenient powers of ten,

Re: On behalf of the metric system AND spelling

[Feynt]

I can just picture a micrometer now; you know, a tiny measuring device (i.e., a meter) a millionth the size of a normal one. Why, it would be so tiny that you would need to measure it in micrometres (i.e., tiny units of length, each a millions the size of a metre)!

A new candy!

[Josh Booth]

How about we create a new kind of candy with this stuff. It would be like Poprocks but it electrocutes you with the millions of micro-batteries it has. I wonder how toxic these batteries are.

<quote source="The Simpsons">
"We knew that the gum had spiders eggs in it, but the Haunta virus! Heh heh."
--Krusty the Klown
</quote>

Oh, it's patented. Nevermind.

Re:Not so fast.

[MidnightBrewer]

You've obviously never talked to anyone outside of the state. I worked for Creative Labs tech support in Stillwater for a year and heard it all. The first post was very accurate.

Liking Oklahoma City and Tulsa at the same time is impossible, especially if you live in Oklahoma.

Ironically, the two previous posts accurately reflect the respective attitudes of Tulsans and Oklahoma City natives.

I lived in Oklahoma for the last ten years, and now live in Japan. Change is good.

Obviously?

[BoomerSooner]

Obviously you only speak to fucking morons, if they think people ride horses to work and live in teepees.

Tulsa is a piss poor laid out city. 99% of shopping is off 71st and Memorial (congestion is worse than at Sam Moon in Dallas).

My father is from New Jersey and my mother is from Mississippi. Surprisingly enough they didn't think that people lived in teepees in the 1960's so anyone that still actually believes anything like that is rather slow. Granted spending summers in NJ/NYC there were people who wou

Re:Obviously?

[RobertB-DC]

Man, this is so far off-topic now, but I'm originally from Tulsa, so I'll throw in my 2c.

Tulsa is a piss poor laid out city. 99% of shopping is off 71st and Memorial (congestion is worse than at Sam Moon in Dallas).

What a sad situation! My family moved to Tulsa (Owasso, actually) in the late '70s, just before Woodland Hills Mall came in at the aforementioned corner. Up until I left (mid-80s), the city's layout was nearly ideal... the entire city is laid out on a 1-mile grid, so you can get anywhere fr

Lab experiments

[Anonymous Coward]

It's still a lab experiment, but then so was the semiconductor at one time.

Just like that blue cheese in my refrigerator was once milk.

Microscopic battery

[NanoGator]

Below is an attached a pic of the battery.

.

Re:Microscopic battery

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Below is an attached a pic of the battery. ."

I hate when jokes are modded as off-topic.

Re:Microscopic battery

[quantaman]

Reminds me of the time in Junior High when I did a report on Nanotechnology for the science fair. None of the judges seemed to get it when I told them I had a scale model!

maybe two are needed

[annisette]

I hope these things are stackable

Admins, please read the article

[Sir Holo]

It's not a microscopic battery. From the article:

...For this reason, some researchers feel that it is premature to describe the set- up as a battery.

Also, the title is misleading. "Nano Power for Nano Devices Patented" sounds like the idea of having any power for nano devices has been patented. It's not that. The researchers have simply come up with a method to produce a structure that could be used for the purpose. There are undoubtedly numerous other ways of achieving this same goal. They're just one of the first reporting one to the mainstream press.

Re:Admins, please read the article

[jo42]

...and what are they going to do with all the heat that nano devices will generate?

Battery size..

[adeyadey]

Is it an AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA battery then?

Re:Battery size..

[erinacht]

Not it's an AWWWWWWWWWWW battery

As in Awwwww, what a cute ikkle battery
;-)

One minor correction

[GeoGreg]

This invention was created at the University of Tulsa [utulsa.edu], a private institution. There is a University of Oklahoma at Tulsa [ou.edu], but that's a different entity, part of the state university system.

The situation is much the same in my current hometown, where we have a University of Denver (private) and a University of Colorado-Denver (public).

Ouch!

[iCat]

Assuming a sheet 1 battery deep, coating the base of my Powerbook would allow for:

depth: 245mm x 1000 batteries/mm = 245 000 batteries

width: 305mm x 1000 batteries/mm = 305 000 batteries

Giving a grand total of 8.6x10^10 batteries That's a current of: 8.6x10^7 Amps, which is quite scary!