Instead of a battery, the new concept is a kind of fuel cell — which is similar to a battery but can be quickly refueled rather than recharged. In this case, the fuel is liquid sodium metal, an inexpensive and widely available commodity. The other side of the cell is just ordinary air, which serves as a source of oxygen atoms. In between, a layer of solid ceramic material serves as the electrolyte, allowing sodium ions to pass freely through, and a porous air-facing electrode helps the sodium to chemically react with oxygen and produce electricity.

In a series of experiments with a prototype device, the researchers demonstrated that this cell could carry more than three times as much energy per unit of weight as the lithium-ion batteries used in virtually all electric vehicles today.

A great deal of research has gone into developing lithium-air or sodium-air batteries over the last three decades, but it has been hard to make them fully rechargeable. “People have been aware of the energy density you could get with metal-air batteries for a very long time, and it’s been hugely attractive, but it’s just never been realized in practice,” Chiang says.

By using the same basic electrochemical concept, only making it a fuel cell instead of a battery, the researchers were able to get the advantages of the high energy density in a practical form. Unlike a battery, whose materials are assembled once and sealed in a container, with a fuel cell the energy-carrying materials go in and out.

The researchers envision that to use this system in an aircraft, fuel packs containing stacks of cells, like racks of food trays in a cafeteria, would be inserted into the fuel cells; the sodium metal inside these packs gets chemically transformed as it provides the power. A stream of its chemical byproduct is given off, and in the case of aircraft this would be emitted out the back, not unlike the exhaust from a jet engine.

But there’s a very big difference: There would be no carbon dioxide emissions. Instead the emissions, consisting of sodium oxide, would actually soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This compound would quickly combine with moisture in the air to make sodium hydroxide — a material commonly used as a drain cleaner — which readily combines with carbon dioxide to form a solid material, sodium carbonate, which in turn forms sodium bicarbonate, otherwise known as baking soda.

“There’s this natural cascade of reactions that happens when you start with sodium metal,” Chiang says. “It’s all spontaneous. We don’t have to do anything to make it happen, we just have to fly the airplane.”

As an added benefit, if the final product, the sodium bicarbonate, ends up in the ocean, it could help to de-acidify the water, countering another of the damaging effects of greenhouse gases.

Initially, the plan is to produce a brick-sized fuel cell that can deliver about 1,000 watt-hours of energy, enough to power a large drone, in order to prove the concept in a practical form that could be used for agriculture, for example. The team hopes to have such a demonstration ready within the next year

If you can accurately tell which of these photos are in Kansas vs Colorado then you’re truly well driven

I picked up this old Dufferin green leaf about a month ago online, and was sad when it wasnt straight because I love the maple butt.

Luckily, considering the oddity of the aluminum pin-in-shaft design on a 30+ year old cue, I was able to get a replacement from Canada where Dufferin is the largest cuemaker.

After two weeks of waiting to see if I was right, and the issue was in the old shaft/pin, it looks like the butt is as straight as the new shaft!

Cant wait to give it a test drive. Oddly enough the new shaft is about a half an inch or more longer than the old shaft, which is a bonus

God might not be a gambler, but His creatures certainly are. With the papal conclave due to start on May 7th, punters on Polymarket, Kalshi and Betfair—three prediction markets—have already wagered $19m collectively on identifying the next pontiff. Adjusted for inflation, that is nearly 50 times more than in 2013, when Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina became Pope Francis. It may seem odd that such an arcane process can be forecast at all. But papal betting has a long history. Roman banking houses were taking bets as far back as 1503. Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto, a 16th-century cardinal, is said to have placed a ten-to-one bet on Francesco Sforza di Santa Fiora, whom he then duly helped to install as Pope Gregory XIV. (Damasceni Peretti had big bills to pay: he is said to have kept a staff of musicians on standby to sing solos at his palace.)

Such shenanigans are presumably a thing of the past. Cardinals say their voting is guided by the Holy Spirit. But today’s bettors look for more tangible clues, such as seniority, diplomatic or pastoral experience and the general direction of the Roman Catholic Church. With millions of dollars on the line, modern markets should estimate probabilities of victory reasonably well—although their current message is that the race is wide open. Our analysis of the odds offered across all three sites finds that even the current favourite, Pietro Parolin, has only a one-in-four chance of election. He is the Vatican’s secretary of state and is expected to preside over the conclave. Close behind him are Luis Tagle of the Philippines and Peter Turkson of Ghana, both of whom would represent regions where Catholicism is growing fastest. Matteo Zuppi, who serves as the Holy See's peace envoy to Ukraine, is also currently a frontrunner. The markets reserve a healthy 6% chance for a surprise: that someone currently outside the top ten will emerge from the conclave in white. Papability

So far, these odds have been fairly stable. In theory, they should remain so even after proceedings begin. The Church prohibits the 135 electors, “except in cases of proven and urgent necessity”, from any outside contact, on penalty of excommunication. The same applies to anyone else “legitimately present in Vatican City”. The only clue that bettors will get is the number of voting rounds that fail to yield a pope—the outcome of each unsuccessful tally is announced to the world with a stream of black smoke from the cardinals’ burned ballots.

Yet in 2013 the veil of secrecy that gives the conclave its name (from the Latin cum clave, “with a key”) proved surprisingly porous. On the second morning of voting, Giacomo Galeazzi, the Vatican correspondent of Italy’s La Stampa newspaper, reported that Bergoglio, who had not previously been seen as a leading candidate, was near the top of the balloting. Just 34 minutes after the second outpouring of black smoke, Mr Galeazzi posted an update naming the three effective finalists. All were later confirmed to have led the first round of voting.

That year traders on Betfair failed to move on the news. This time, with more money on the line, they might be quicker to act. A sharp shift in our chart once the cardinals are sequestered would be cause for suspicion—though very far from proof—of loose lips in or around the Sistine Chapel.

Calling all 8-ball, 9-ball, and snooker lovers to the first billiards community of Lemmy!

Hoping to create a chill environment to talk about games, gear, equipment, etc

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