The world's first nuclear-diamond battery uses carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,700 years, to power devices.

The world’s first nuclear-powered battery, which uses a radioactive isotope embedded in a diamond, could power small devices for thousands of years, scientists say.

The nuclear battery uses the reaction of a diamond placed close to a radioactive source to spontaneously produce electricity, scientists at the University of Bristol in the U.K. explained in a Dec. 4 statement. No motion — neither linear nor rotational — is required. That means no energy is needed to move a magnet through a coil or to turn an armature within a magnetic field to produce electric current, as is required in conventional power sources.

The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    31·
    2 days ago

    Ever heard of the alarm function on a watch?

    Yeah, some of us use the alarm, it’s kinda nice when the watch can at least have a few days charge, in case something comes up and I’m out of town longer than expected and didn’t bring my charger.

    Given that the technology for clocks and watches that last upwards of a decade on a single battery has been around for quite a while, I don’t feel I should be bothered having to recharge my watch every day. Besides, smart watches just happen to be yet another tracking device.

    I’m actually a fan of simple dumb watches and clocks that can last a long time, or basically indefinitely. Or just amazing clocks in general…

    Atmos Clock (Powered by atmospheric pressure changes): https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jzl8HutWvw0

    Automatic Self Winding Watch: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZiubuxAAsXE

    Solar Powered Watches: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oHxyp_0rW5M

    Lego Mangle Rack Clock: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GUdlSYC1cCE

    Digital Sundial: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wrsje5It_UU

    Of course you don’t have to watch any of those videos if you don’t care to, but if you have any appreciation for awesome timekeeping devices, you’ll probably find all those videos rather interesting.

    Edit: This happens to be my current watch, a Casio WS-1300H. Mine has a custom modified spiked wrist band…

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=WVAO4_AfPEY

    https://lemmy.world/post/22860120

    Happy Holidays!

    • Eheran@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 day ago

      Comparing the runtime of a simple watch to a smart watch is a bit odd. Obviously you need next to no energy to run a simple clock, technology has been at that point since many decades. But for something with an actual screen, that does a ton of computing and has to connect to other devices… we are not there yet. If you reduce the requirements you get some days of runtime with some still smart-ish watches.

      But if you really want the watch from Apple… Just bring the charger? That is really not a big deal. The same way phones used to last days when all they did was wait for a call, but now they do not and people understand that.