jmiller

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Very true. Unfortunately, this process just pulls gold from dilute sources and gathers it into nuggets, from small ones to very very large. No gold is being made new though, that would be great.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Well, that is the amount gold that is mined or recycled every year that is used in electronics. The thing is though, a lot of the gold used in electronics is never recovered. So a considerable amount of the gold used in electronics is removed from from circulation in a way the gold in jewelry or bullion or coins isn't. It isn't the primary driver of gold's price increase, but it is a significant factor.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Gold prices have risen steadily for a long time, partly because of its use in electronics. Over $2500/ounce now. But another quirk of gold is the ease with which we can make very thin coatings of it over other materials, sometimes only a few atoms thick. So it is commonly used, but in very very small amounts per device.

[–] [email protected] 124 points 3 months ago (8 children)

But remember, electric motors also require next to no maintenance and can last for many years of runtime. Pros and cons.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Sure, to get them to speak in unison. They did all read from the same script though. It wouldn't be as viscerally creepy without the editing, but I would say the situation is as bad as the video makes it seem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Well, I just said carbon fiber, but to be more exact it is forged carbon SMC, so yeah, careful engineering involved. Same stuff Lamborghini is using for some structural components, so probably fairly fit to purpose.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forged_composite

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Well, it has a carbon fiber frame with a crumple zone in the front. They are going to put it through 3rd party safety testing. It won't be as safe as a big SUV, sure, but I think it will be safer than an ebike. It also protects you from weather and has 35 cubic feet of storage in the back. I think ebikes are great too, but this does have more of the advantages of a car.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (7 children)

The benefits increase as the efficiency of the car increases though, check out Aptera. They say they get 10 miles per kwh, and they have a lot of surface area for panels. Enough that in ideal conditions they say they get 40 miles per day from solar. It is a bit different looking though.

https://aptera.us

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Growing crops to make ethanol is not particulatly green. In fact, in most existing production loops we would be better off environmentally to just burn pure gasoline than produce the ethanol to mix into it, unfortunately. Too much water, too many tractors and trucks, and way too much electricity into ethanol production to be worth what we get out of it. And the bit of carbon the crops sequester doesn't overcome it. Electric vehicles are by far the greenest option right now.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

It won't have started getting closer again before the Milky Way collides with the Adromeda galaxy in 5 Billion years, so it and anything we send on a similar path isn't coming back.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I am not any kind of expert either, but I have been following this company for a couple of years. If it makes it to market and is at all price competitive i can't see it not being a big deal. Granted, that is an if, not when, but they seem to be further along than most battery tech you read about.

No rare earth metals or even nickel or copper, has a very flat degradation curve even at charge rates up to 30C (testing stopped at 3k cycles in the coin cell tests), non flammable and non toxic. The only thing you would wish for is better capacity, but it is already better than any mass produced Li ion cell, and it has a theoretical maximum a couple times that of Li ions.

 

Very interesting company. They started with a way to produce graphene at scale, then went looking for something to do with it. Their first idea was to use it as a cement additive. They have since used it as friction reducer in engine oil, and are selling it in Australia, Canada, and soon the US, as a radiator coating to improve HVAC performance.

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