Chinese in Science, the Golden Dragon Battery

The 'Golden Dragon Battery' has a very specific meaning in Chinese Sci-Fi literature, but that's the other story for another day. For now, Chinese should celebrate a breakthrough in battery technology progress from Georgia Tech for very good reason: all developers are Chinese. As a matter of fact, the first author Dr. Xinyu Xue is a visiting scholar from Northeast University in Shenyang, Liaoning Province.

Unlike all batteries ever known to man, this battery can convert mechanical energy directly to chemical energy, utilizing nano technology. By skipping indeterminate electricity stage, the battery promised higher efficiency and versatile applications - an achievement indeed something we Chinese should be proud of.

What else is a better way to use the Golden Dragon Battery than in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)? Unlike US drones which are controlled by buttons, switches and joysticks, a quadcopter drone developed by Zhejiang University is driven by the pilot's brain.

Although the show is more like a remix of prior arts, such as a $199 mind reading band on sale from the SkyMall and a $200 RC toy, the packaged demonstration is still an impressive show which deserves a standing ovation.

HCI has come a long way since three button mice. However, as everything else in the computer industry, it just exploded in 2005. From Wii to Kenect, it only takes a few years to reach the stage of mind-controlled games. Many early demonstrations, including mind controlled helicopters started emerging in 2011.

Fast Recharge

Zhang Huigang of UIUC published a study which would enable a 75% recharge in 2 seconds on NiMH battery, and 2 minutes on a lithium battery utilizing nano technology.

The potential of this study is huge, but it's also notable that Zhang was one of few scientists fully educated and trained in mainland China to claim first class major contribution. Zhang received B.S. from Northwestern University in Xi'an, and a Master's degree from China University of Petroleum. His Ph.D. degree was from Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhang currently works as a PostDoc in the Braun Group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UIUC.

Thinkpad on Fire

"So we're waiting for a flight in the United lounge at LAX, the flight next to ours was heading to London and in the middle of final boarding, when suddenly this guy comes running the wrong way up the jetway, pushing other boarding passengers out of the way, he quickly drops his laptop on the floor and the thing immediately flares up like a giant firework for about 15 seconds, then catches fire. About a hundred other people in the lounge jumped up and began a mix of gawking and general panic, I clearly heard a few fleeing individuals saying something about terrorists. The fire burned for a minute while everybody just stared at it, then another flare up, this one much larger than the first, drove a larger group of gawkers away. Eventually, the high intensity flaring calmed down and a larger fire kicked in, all the while letting off a thick cloud of white smoke that was slowly filling the terminal. Finally, an employee came over with a fire extinguisher and put it out of its misery."

Dell recently recalled 4.1 million laptops with battery made by Sony. Although Lenovo also uses Sony batteries, a Lenovo spokesman Bob Page stated that there would be no battery recall. He told reporters that the battery fire problem of Dell brand laptops was caused by complicated reasons, which 'are not present' in Lenovo's systems.
Gizmodo