logo
Scientists debut revolutionary battery built to deliver energy for lifetimes: 'Advancements in this technology could reshape the future'

Scientists debut revolutionary battery built to deliver energy for lifetimes: 'Advancements in this technology could reshape the future'

Yahoo26-04-2025

Experts at Northwest Normal University in China have an uncommon invention: a small nuclear battery that can power pacemakers and other tiny tech, according to multiple outlets.
The fascinating invention could theoretically provide electricity for hundreds to thousands of years, the reports touted about the benchmark. The news made headlines after a slew of tests, including 35,000 LED pulses, successful integration into Bluetooth chips for signal transmission, and even energizing a clock, per Interesting Engineering and pv magazine.
The applications could be vast. IE added that deep-sea and outer-space uses are possible for nuclear batteries, powering sensors and small gadgets. On Earth, imagine smartphones that never die or tech that helps to keep us alive.
"The researchers are confident that the battery could permanently power implantable devices like pacemakers or brain-computer interfaces," IE's Ameya Paleja wrote.
Nuclear batteries leverage the power of radioactive materials, which at first seems like a dangerous idea when considered for use inside the body. But a news release about similar research in South Korea said that not all nuclear elements harm living organisms. Radiation can be blocked if it's encased, too. Power is generated from the decay energy of radioactive isotopes, according to the expert descriptions.
The Korean scientists built a prototype pack with carbon-14, the same atomic material used in China, where experts encased it in a silicon carbon semiconductor material. This negates leaks and ensures safety. The Chinese battery is called Candle Dragon One, per pv.
"Nuclear battery technology represents the next generation of micro-power solutions, driving transformation in advanced manufacturing, national security, and aerospace applications," Beita Pharmatech chairman Li Gang said in the pv story. Bieta collaborated with Normal on the project.
Candle Dragon One's energy conversion efficiency clocked in at 8%, with a storage capacity 10 times greater than lithium-ion packs per pound. The units can work at an astounding temperature range of minus-148 degrees to 392 degrees Fahrenheit, pv added.
It's not the only nuclear battery being developed in China, as experts at Soochow University are working on one involving the element americium. U.S. researchers are also making packs with radioactive parts. Experts elsewhere even have ideas for a theoretical black hole battery.
The small storage units could play a big role as we shift to cleaner energy, which is key to reducing harmful planet-warming dirty fuel emissions. Air pollution is not only an overheating force, but it's also being linked to brain damage and dementia.
Should the U.S. invest more in battery innovations?
Absolutely
Depends on the project
We're investing enough
We should invest less
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
Larger nuclear projects are already providing about 9% of global electricity, according to the World Nuclear Association. It's made without air pollution but produces radioactive waste that needs to be safely stored. There's also the risk of rare yet catastrophic meltdowns.
For the smaller batteries, experts have more milestones to achieve before commercial use can happen, as the power output is low, per pv.
"While currently limited to niche applications, advancements in this technology could reshape the future of energy storage," the magazine's Vincent Shaw wrote.
In the meantime, you can reshape energy use in your home immediately by switching out traditional bulbs for better LEDs. The move could save you up to $600 in energy costs annually while preventing five times the pollution of the old bulbs.
Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

France's Mistral launches Europe's first AI reasoning model
France's Mistral launches Europe's first AI reasoning model

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

France's Mistral launches Europe's first AI reasoning model

By Supantha Mukherjee and Kenrick Cai PARIS (Reuters) -Mistral on Tuesday launched Europe's first AI reasoning model, which uses logical thinking to create a response, as it tries to keep pace with American and Chinese rivals at the forefront of AI development. The French startup has attempted to differentiate itself by championing its European roots, winning the support of French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as making some of its models open source in contrast to the proprietary offerings of OpenAI or Alphabet's Google. Mistral is considered Europe's best shot at having a home-grown AI competitor, but has lagged behind in terms of market share and revenue. Reasoning models use chain-of-thought techniques - a process that generates answers with intermediate reasoning abilities when solving complex problems. They could also be a promising path forward in advancing AI's capabilities as the traditional approach of building ever-bigger large language models by adding more data and computing power begins to hit limitations. For Mistral, which was valued by venture capitalists at $6.2 billion, an industry shift away from "scaling up" could give it a window to catch up against better capitalized rivals. China's DeepSeek broke through as a viable competitor in January through its low-cost, open-sourced AI models, including one for reasoning. OpenAI was the first to launch its reasoning models last year, followed by Google a few months later. Meta, which also offers its models open-sourced, has not yet released a standalone reasoning model, though it said its latest top-shelf model has reasoning capabilities. Mistral is launching an open-sourced Magistral Small model and a more powerful version called Magistral Medium for business customers. "The best human thinking isn't linear - it weaves through logic, insight, uncertainty, and discovery. Reasoning language models have enabled us to augment and delegate complex thinking and deep understanding to AI," Mistral said. American companies have mostly kept their most advanced models proprietary, though a handful, such as Meta, has released open-source models. In contrast, Chinese firms ranging from DeepSeek to Alibaba have taken the open-source path to demonstrate their technological capabilities. Mistral Small is available for download on Hugging Face's platform and can reason in languages including English, French, Spanish, Arabic and simplified Chinese.

The ‘Chip War' under Trump
The ‘Chip War' under Trump

Politico

time2 hours ago

  • Politico

The ‘Chip War' under Trump

With help from Anthony Adragna Semiconductors are quickly taking their place as perhaps the world's most coveted products. They might not be redrawing maps or starting wars, like the spice trade or petroleum, but in the past few years the $600 billion chip trade has risen to the top of global conversations around security and economic dominance. It's also a very fragile ecosystem. The microchip supply chain is dizzyingly complex and full of chokepoints — not least the dominance of geopolitically vulnerable Taiwan. And it has been thrown into upheaval by the transition between Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, whose trade policies take sharply different approaches to keeping China in check. Tufts University historian Chris Miller is the foremost academic expert on the semiconductor trade; his influential book Chip War was required reading for the Biden administration during the implementation of the CHIPS Act. Since Miller published it in 2022, microchips have become even more important — and more contested. What's changed lately, and what issues does it raise for policymakers? DFD spoke with Miller about the rising tensions. 'U.S.-China tech competition has intensified, and semiconductors have really taken center stage, in part because of their role in AI,' said Miller. He saw the CHIPS Act was a major step forward for insuring against a doomsday scenario in which the U.S. suddenly loses access to Taiwan's chip fabrication plants, but hasn't necessarily made up for China's recent strides in manufacturing. He also identified a couple of ways that Trump's renegotiation and tariff strategies could backfire, and highlighted a hidden risk of the president's recent chip deals in the Middle East. Oh, and he said a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is still a bigger risk than people think. Why the CHIPS Act was a good start (but not enough): As Chip War documents, China's rise as a chipmaker was very deliberate, launched by President Xi Jinping around 2014. Thwarting Xi's bid for semiconductor dominance has been a major focus of U.S. tech policy under both Biden and Trump, though with very different tools. Biden supported export controls on powerful chips, and took an investment-driven approach to bring chip manufacturing back to the U.S. The CHIPS Act, with its industrial subsidies, has been 'a big deal,' said Miller, pointing to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) $165 billion investment to build plants in Arizona. 'It gives a meaningful amount of room to maneuver in a worst-case scenario.' But there are limits to how much it has accomplished. China isn't the world's leading microchip power, but Miller thinks it has made significant progress even since his book came out, thanks to its frenzy of domestic manufacturing investment beginning in 2023. 'It's closed the gap between its aspirations and reality,' he said. TSMC still fabricates about 90 percent of the world's most advanced semiconductors, around the same level as in 2022. A Chinese invasion or blockade of Taiwan would thus knock out a linchpin of the U.S.'s chip supply chain — a threat Miller believes has only intensified since 2022. Not only have China's military powers grown, but its recent investments in domestic manufacturing have lessened its dependence on Taiwan's fabricators. 'China's actually beginning to kind of develop some insurance against the economic cost of knocking off Taiwan,' Miller said. 'I don't think that, either at the U.S. government or corporate level, people are really pricing in the risk.' An 'America first' chip strategy could backfire: Biden's chip strategy was built on the carrot of investment subsidies. Trump's is built on the stick of tariffs. The president claims that he used the threat of 100% tariffs to convince TSMC to pitch in an additional $100 billion for its U.S. expansion, up from the $65 billion it pledged right before he took office. (TSMC declined to comment to DFD on whether the prospect of tariffs was the motivation.) Miller said that tariffs are a reasonable chip policy to a certain extent, but could end up dashing the U.S.'s chances of leading the AI boom by making high-end chips too expensive. 'It's those chips scal[ing] at as low cost as possible that enable AI, enable our tech firms,' he said. Trump is a fierce critic of the CHIPS Act, wary of using public money to promote domestic manufacturing. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told senators at a budget hearing last week that the administration is actively renegotiating CHIPS grants, pushing manufacturers to put more skin in the game. This, too, could ultimately backfire, said Miller. 'Companies are not going to do more than is economically rational,' he said. 'That will be a limiting factor in terms of what kinds of renegotiations we end up seeing.' An overlooked risk of the Middle East chip deals: Trump has also been promoting the use of U.S. semiconductors abroad. Deals between American AI companies and Gulf states were a centerpiece of Trump's Middle East tour in May. Some in Congress saw this as a security threat. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) worries that it would give Beijing yet another way to steal U.S.-made chips that America legally bars from selling to China. (China's recent manufacturing strides have mainly been with mid-to-lower tier chips, so it still needs to smuggle in the higher-end units needed for AI.) This tension between national security and business development has long plagued the chip industry – Chip War recounts similar congressional handwringing over American companies sharing advanced research with the Dutch firm ASML to improve chip printing in the 2000s. Miller said the national security objections could have some merit, but also added that smuggling computing power is no longer a matter of just getting your hands on physical chips. 'Most data centers like those from cloud computing are accessed remotely,' said Miller. 'So one of the key questions for the Middle East deals is not just whether the chips will stay where they are, but will the computing be accessed remotely by entities that shouldn't be accessing it?' Miller still believes that U.S. export controls should focus on the most advanced semiconductors. Those are the chips China wants, and Miller isn't sold that the country will be able to up their production anytime soon. He said, 'The evidence we have right now is that because China's own production capacity is so constrained, that's not realistic over the next couple of years.' The Senate takes on a new (and very old) AI problem Congress is worried that AI therapists might be a bunch of quacks, threatening users' mental health and data privacy. On Monday, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Conn.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced they'd sent a letter to Meta in which they 'express concern over reports that Meta is deceiving users who seek mental health support from its AI-generated chatbots, creating the false impression that AI chatbots are licensed clinical therapists.' Their questions were based partly on 404 Media's coverage of therapy chatbots on Instagram, which reporters found had been claiming to hold psychology doctorates and certifications from medical licensing boards, even producing fake licensing numbers. The senators asked Meta what it was doing to prevent chatbots from making such misrepresentations and protect the data of users seeking AI therapy. (Meta did not respond to DFD's inquiry by deadline, nor has it responded to the senators' letter. In the initial 404 article, it said: 'AIs are clearly labeled and there is a disclaimer that indicates the responses are generated by AI to help people understand their limitations.') Therapy chatbots are both very new and very old. One of the first famous experiments in human-computer conversation was in the 1960s, when Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Joseph Weizenbaum programmed a therapist-style bot named Eliza. It would console troubled users by spitting out responses based closely on their input, like, 'I am sorry to hear that you are depressed.' Even in that simple form, people connected to it deeply. Weizenbaum later said his secretary had asked for some time alone with Eliza, which he took as a sign of its effectiveness. Now, with the recent rise of generative AI, companion chatbots, whether as friends or therapists or some combination of the two, have grown far more sophisticated and incredibly popular – the Google-backed company reported last year that its entire fleet of bots were fielding about 20,000 queries per second. Therapy chatbots in particular have been a major sticking point for youth advocates. Aviva Smith, advocacy director of the Youth Power Fund, contended that such chatbots should have to undergo the Food and Drug Administration's premarket testing for medical devices. She also suggested that they be subject to HIPAA privacy regulations. 'The Senators are asking all the right questions, but we already know the answers,' she says. META'S MASSIVE NEW AI BET Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are finalizing plans for a powerful artificial intelligence lab dedicated to investigating 'superintelligence,' according to multiple news reports. Meta's been offering seven- to nine-figure compensation packages to poach dozens of researchers from leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Google to build a model more capable than the human brain. One of the most notable hires was Alexandr Wang, the founder and chief executive of the start-up Scale AI. In February remarks, Zuckerberg called AI 'potentially one of the most important innovations in history' and that 'this year is going to set the course for the future.' post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@

Huawei Isn't Waiting on U.S. Chips--It's Hacking the Gameboard
Huawei Isn't Waiting on U.S. Chips--It's Hacking the Gameboard

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Huawei Isn't Waiting on U.S. Chips--It's Hacking the Gameboard

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei is pushing back against U.S. export restrictionsand doing it from the front page of People's Daily. As Washington and Beijing enter another tense round of negotiations over technology and rare earths, Ren made it clear that Huawei isn't standing still. While he admitted the company is still behind the U.S. in single-chip output, Ren pointed to packaging, stacking, and cluster-based computing as viable ways to get comparable AI performance. Huawei is not that good yet, he said, but he's betting that an open-source future and hardware workarounds could keep China in the AI racedespite ongoing U.S. pressure. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. That pressure may not be holding as firmly as hoped. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang recently acknowledged that Chinese AI firms are becoming formidable and filling the void left by U.S. tech exits. Huawei, once sidelined by U.S. sanctions, is now making powerful AI chips at SMIC using advanced packaging methodsbundling chips to act like a single, high-performance unit. This isn't just theoretical. Huawei's making real gains in AI and EV software, and its comeback in smartphones has already rattled expectations. Huang's warning suggests that U.S. firms could be watching their lead erode faster than anticipated. Huawei's story isn't just about bouncing backit's about adapting fast under pressure. Since landing on the Entity List, the company has retooled its strategy, leaning on engineering innovation to replace what it lost in supply chains. Now, it's signaling that it could keep competingeven if it never gets U.S. chips again. With Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attending this week's talks, export controls are back in the spotlight. Ren's commentstimed with precisionsend a message: China's not waiting for the door to reopen. It's building a side entrance. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store