[GeronL]

That could be interesting

[Cacique]

btt

[Mike Darancette]

Powering the grey goo.

[hinckley buzzard]

the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery.

well, shazzam!

[smokingfrog]

I don’t understand any of it, but it sure sounds good.

[Natural Law]

It sounds a lot more complicated than my discovery of plugging an extension cord into my neighbors backyard outlet....

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[Southack]

Move magnetism along a wire: get current.
Move heat along a wire: get current.

Kinda cool.

[pissant]

Still waiting for cold fusion

[ZOOKER]

kinds of ultra-small electronic devices — for example, devices the size of grains of rice, perhaps with sensors or treatment devices that could be injected into the body.

Hope this idea never pans out.

[Paladin2]

Low efficiency is a definite problem.

[csense]

A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon...

Entirely redundant

[Smokin' Joe]

I hate to be a spoinsport, but how much energy does it take to make the nanotubes, and what is left after the reaction (are the tubes destroyed, or only the fuel on the outside)?

[DannyTN]

"one possible application would be in enabling new kinds of ultra-small electronic devices — for example, devices the size of grains of rice, perhaps with sensors"

Don't Eat the RICE!!!! It's a spy bot!!!

/conspiracy mode off

[BipolarBob]

This sounds like a good science project. LOOK ITS BOB ☻/ This is bob, copy paste him on /▌ every comment you see so he can / \ take over FR.

[FreePaul]

...it’s hard to predict exactly what the practical applications will be. But he suggests that one possible application...sensors or treatment devices that could be injected into the body.

With temperatures of 3000K wouldn't these little things require considerable insulation to be used in the human body?

[Kevmo]

Sounds a lot like thermionics

Thermal diode for energy conversion - US Patent 6396191 AbstractPatent Abstract: Solid state thermionic energy converter semiconductor diode implementation and ... US Patent 6396191 - Thermal diode for energy conversion ...
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6396191.html
Hybrid thermionic energy converter and method - US Patent 6906449 ...Inventor: Wilson6323414, Heterostructure thermionic coolers. Issued on: 11/27/2001. Inventor: Shakouri, et al.6396191, Thermal diode for energy conversion ...
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6906449.html

Show more results from http://www.patentstorm.us
[DOC] Project: Carbon Nanotube Thermionic Generators for Aircraft APUsFile Format: Microsoft Word - View as HTML
A thermionic energy converter or “thermal diode” consists of a cathode, vacuum gap, and anode. Heating the cathode causes the electrons to “boil off”, ...
http://ctd.grc.nasa.gov/.../Carbon%20Nanotube%20Thermionic%20Generators%20for%20Aircraft%...

[SunkenCiv]

Combustion waves -- like this pulse of heat hurtling along a wire -- "have been studied mathematically for more than 100 years," Strano says, but he was the first to predict that such waves could be guided by a nanotube or nanowire and that this wave of heat could push an electrical current along that wire... "we were really surprised by the size of the resulting voltage peak" that propagated along the wire. After further development, the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery. The amount of power released, he says, is much greater than that predicted by thermoelectric calculations. While many semiconductor materials can produce an electric potential when heated, through something called the Seebeck effect, that effect is very weak in carbon. "There's something else happening here," he says. “We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity." The thermal wave, he explains, appears to be entraining the electrical charge carriers (either electrons or electron holes) just as an ocean wave can pick up and carry a collection of debris along the surface. This important property is responsible for the high power produced by the system, Strano says.

[ShadowAce]

[GOPJ]

The amount of power released, he says, is much greater than that predicted by thermoelectric calculations.

Can a perpetual motion machine be far behind?