MIT researchers develop a low-cost technique to get lithium out of rocks (news.mit.edu)

submitted 3 days ago by Valuy@lemmy.zip to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Low monetary cost, or low environmental cost?

Edit: Read the article, it sounds like it's a closed loop system that should be environmentally safe. But it can't be that easy. They make it seem like they found the holy grail. Nothing is ever this easy and good. Prove me wrong?

[-] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago

It might be. Fluorine chemistry is not exactly the most widely researched avenue simply due to the inherent danger of it.

I'm hopeful. A lot of true breakthroughs are relatively simple and seemingly obvious in hindsight.

[-] lemmyseikai@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Agreed. We made the nuke before the compound bow because precision machining wasn't that easy to do, but one we got it down, tools changed rapidly.

[-] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago

First bow- Paleolithic 48,000 BC or older Longbow- 4,000 BC or older Composite bow- 3000-1200 BC Compound bow- 1966 AD Fission nuke- 1945 Fusion bomb 1952