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David Fuller and Eoin Treacy's Comment of the Day
Category - Technology

Email of the day on a layman's description of nuclear batteries.

I suddenly seem to be bombarding you with communications, after years in the wilderness.    Don't worry, this will only be a brief interlude, I am sure.

   I just wanted to comment on the extract on "nano-diamond self-charging batteries" that you publish today.

I read Loz Blain's whole article, and it seems a very important development indeed.   But in keeping with all articles on technology for the "layman", the story doesn't start at the beginning, but begins a bit down the down the road, and soon focusses on the applications alone.    This applies even more to your extract.

I feel that this patronises the reader unnecessarily.    The average reader should be able to understand a brief well-structured explanation that starts from the beginning.   (This objection applies even more to articles on Covid-19 -- but that is another story.   In that case, I don't believe any politicians, or even some of their scientific advisers, have any real grasp of the subject.)

Re. the batteries, we have to start from the energy source.   There are only 3 (or maybe 4) energy sources:-    Radiation (sunlight), Chemical energy (in fossil fuels, wood etc.) and Nuclear energy (stored in the nuclei of all atoms, and released from the unstable ones).    The 4th source would be Gravitational (hydro-electric power, tidal, possibly wave).
 

The source in nano-diamond is nuclear, but the products (nitrogen gas) are harmless, and the beta radiation is contained (or so they claim).    The beta radiation (carrying the nuclear energy as kinetic energy) then transfers its energy to electrons, and creates the voltage.

The prefix nano is jargon which could be avoided - it simply means "using minute quantities of material", or possibly "operating with minute quantities of material at a time (i.e. on a very small scale), within a larger structure".    (This is what is happening in living things, and thus in the cells of our bodies, 24/7.     Man has only just caught up with this technology, in a rudimentary manner.)
 

"Self-charging" is superfluous and confusing.     I suppose it means that electricity is being continually formed from the nuclear energy store.    But this is equally true of a conventional battery;  the energy in that case is chemical, and there is far less than in the carbon-14 nuclei in nano-diamond batteries.

The carbon-14 is nuclear waste - from the used graphite (graphite is a form of carbon) "moderator" blocks from the cores of nuclear power stations, of which there is a huge store apparently.

Well it seems to me that if just 10 or so lines from what I have given above were used, that would be understandable to the average reader, and give them a good working knowledge.     (You may be interested to know, or probably already suspected, that I tutor A level physics and chemistry.   My great passion is communicating these matters clearly.   Granted, it is a great help if the reader has some facility in handling spatial ideas, but that applies to so many technical areas.)



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Nano-diamond self-charging batteries could disrupt energy as we know it

This article by Loz Blain for NewAtlast.com may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

And it can scale up to electric vehicle sizes and beyond, offering superb power density in a battery pack that is projected to last as long as 90 years in that application – something that could be pulled out of your old car and put into a new one. If part of a cell fails, the active nano diamond part can be recycled into another cell, and once they reach the end of their lifespan – which could be up to 28,000 years for a low-powered sensor that might, for example, be used on a satellite – they leave nothing but "harmless by-products."

In the words of Dr. John Shawe-Taylor, UNESCO Chair and University College London Professor: “NDB has the potential to solve the major global issue of carbon emissions in one stroke without the expensive infrastructure
projects, energy transportation costs, or negative environmental impacts associated with alternate solutions such as carbon capture at fossil fuel power stations, hydroelectric plants, turbines, or nuclear power stations. Their technology’s ability to deliver energy over very long periods of time without the need for recharging, refueling, or servicing puts them in an ideal position to tackle the world’s energy requirements through a distributed solution with close to zero environmental impact and energy transportation costs.”

Indeed, the NDB battery offers an outstanding 24-hour energy proposition for off-grid living, and the NDB team is adamant that it wishes to devote a percentage of its time to providing it to needy remote communities as a charity service with the support of some of the company's business customers.

Should the company chew right through the world's full supply of carbon-14 nuclear waste – a prospect that would take some extremely serious volume – NDB says it can create its own carbon-14 raw material simply and cost-effectively.



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Tesla resale values

This graphic from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers:


It’s early, but there are signs Tesla Inc.’s Model 3 could be as exceptional in the used market as it has been in the new-car world. The sedan has sold at volumes no other electric vehicle has come close to reaching, turning Tesla into the most valuable auto company in the world. Car-shopping websites still have small sample sizes to work with, yet so far, the Model 3s are retaining much more of their value than their small luxury-vehicle peers and they’re selling quickly once owners list them for sale -- on average just 29.3 days from March through June -- according to iSeeCars.com.



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Email of the day - on risk appetites and the value of a subscription.

I am a pre-subscriber (financial constraints, exacerbated since Covid-19, make it impossible for me to become a full subscriber, I'm afraid, so I may not qualify for a reply. But David did reply to me on more than one occasion;  he was always so kind, and is greatly missed).

I remember your being on the panel at a money show in the conference centre in Westminster Square (I forget the name - possible Westminster Conference Centre) - it must have been about 2009 because I remember asking a question as to whether there were any "good" banks left that might be worth investing in.
  
Anyhow, in response to a question from another attendee about companies drilling for water in Australia, (or possibly into wind power or solar or even lithium miners (if it wasn't too early) - I forget exactly which), I remember you replying that you never favoured chasing these early-stage stories, and in general you have been proved right since.   

I still tend to class hydrogen fuel and battery power for vehicles in the same category, but perhaps you feel that times have changed sufficiently now?    Since I am only a pre-subscriber, and not able to read the full article, I appreciate that you may have said more on this there, or in previous Comments of the Day.
    
It seems to me that since hydrogen when mixed with oxygen is a very explosive mix (although this could also be said to a lesser extent of petrol vapour, I suppose), it would only take one careless mistake or faulty construction to cause a serious explosion.   But perhaps the design features are so tight that this would be impossible.   

At least I would trust an electric vehicle more than a self-driving one! In fact, I am a bit nervous by nature. I would never trust a Toyota now, after that stuck accelerator pedal caused a fatality. What the last minutes of those poor occupants were like I cannot face thinking about.

Whether it is possible to reply to this or not, many thanks Eoin for the comments that I am able to read daily. They give a very sane and reassuring perspective, especially in these difficult times.



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Fed Blog Says Debt Buying Aided Market Without Moral-Hazard Risk

This article by Liz Capo McCormick for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

The unprecedented speed and scale of the Federal Reserve’s buying of Treasuries and mortgage debt to aid a severely impaired bond market has accomplished that without raising the specter of moral hazard, Federal Reserve Bank of New York researchers wrote in a note.

Pandemic-sparked volatility in March caused liquidity in the world’s biggest bond market to plunge to its worst since the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed responded with purchases of Treasuries and mortgage securities that peaked at more than $100 billion a day combined.
It’s still soaking up about $80 billion of Treasuries and at least $40 billion of mortgage securities a month, and some bond veterans warn that the central bank’s involvement in the market could potentially be encouraging risky behavior, such as excessive borrowing. But a post Thursday in the New York Fed’s Liberty Street blog argued against that.

“The magnitude of the Desk’s purchase program in 2020 ‘to support the smooth functioning’ of the Treasury and agency MBS markets marked those purchases as highly unusual,” wrote Kenneth Garbade, a senior vice president in the New York Fed’s Research and Statistics Group, and Frank Keane, a senior policy advisor.

But they also say that the tool has been used before and “the infrequency of Federal Reserve intervention suggests that relying on the Fed on those rare occasions when markets are in extremis has not materially exacerbated moral hazard.”



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Ballard Power Gets Stock Upgrade as Hydrogen Vehicles Gain Steam

This article by Divya Baljifor Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

Ballard Power, one of Canada’s best-performing stocks this year, just got an analyst upgrade as
governments and vehicle manufacturers around the world push for the development of battery and hydrogen vehicles. BLDP fell as much as 9.5% intraday Thursday in Toronto.

* Stock raised to outperform from sector perform, PT increased to C$20 from C$18 by National Bank of Canada analyst Rupert Merer

* Ballard is in discussions with potential partners in Europe and could form a joint venture with a top-tier supplier; China could have a detailed hydrogen plan come soon, targeting one million hydrogen vehicles by 2030

* Merer sees a number of positive catalysts this year and the stock is still well priced compared with its peers

* Ballard is up more than 110% this year, making it the fourth best performing Canadian stock, vs the S&P/TSX Composite Index’s 2.7% decline

* NOTE: July 29, Fuel-Cell Firm Stages Comeback 20 Years Later With Help of China



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Email of the day on investing in 5G

good morning Eoin I enjoy every morning your briefing - thanks! could you guide me to an ETF which invests in the most promising companies benefitting from 5 G technology development? thanks, and greetings from Switzerland.



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Accelerating AI Adoption in Bio-Pharma through Collaboration

This whitepaper from Insead may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

In these trying times, we have seen many examples of digital technology and innovation flling in the gap. Among these, telemedicine and chatbots have been very helpful for frst-line triage and early-stage diagnosis. China’s AliHealth and JD Health both expanded their telemedicine services for distant consultation and preliminary diagnostics with physicians to prevent the spread of the virus. They also launched diferent versions of their chatbots (a basic form of AI) to disseminate COVID-19 related medical information, health recommendations as well as Q&As.

In the US, the CDC used Microsoft’s healthcare chatbot service to create a coronavirus symptom checker and Whatsapp (owned by Facebook) launched the WHO Health Alert to share critical information to millions of users worldwide. In India, Facebook also used its helpdesk bot to share news and answer user questions relating to the pandemic.

Closer to home, it was encouraging to see smaller European startups launch similar initiatives, such as the French startup Clevy which is among Early Metrics’ highly rated companies and has created Covid-bot.fr.

These speedy developments in response to the pandemic were a testament to the real value brought by these technologies and to the reactivity of young innovative companies. We hope they will inspire future considerations for public healthcare systems to welcome innovation from both tech giants and emerging innovators.



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GM Shares Soar on Electric-Vehicle Spin-Off Speculation

This article by David Welch for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

GM does plan to sell more than 20 EV models around 2023. That business could be spun off for $20 billion and eventually be worth as much as $100 billion, Deutsche Bank’s Rosner said. GM’s core business selling gasoline-powered sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks is generating cash but viewed as being in long-term decline and is less exciting to investors than the company’s electric-car plans, he wrote.

Despite the share gains this week, the Detroit-based automaker’s stock is down about 17% so far this year while all-electric rival Tesla Inc.’s value is eight times that of GM. By spinning off its EV business, GM could get the kind of momentum enjoyed by Tesla and a handful of startups that have lured capital despite their having no vehicles on the market.

Battery-powered cars have caught the imagination of investors in recent weeks, sending shares of Tesla to successive record levels and boosting the value of electric startups such as Nikola Inc., Fisker Inc. and Lordstown Motors Corp., all of which took a fast track chasing public listings after being acquired by special purpose acquisition companies.



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Black silicon photodetector hits record-breaking 132% efficiency

This article by Michael Irving for NewAtlas may be of interest to subscribers.

Together, these advances made for a device with 130-percent external quantum efficiency. The team even had these results independently verified by the German National Metrology Institute, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB).

The researchers say that this record efficiency could improve the performance of basically any photodetector, including solar cells and other light sensors, and that the new detectors are already being manufactured for commercial use.



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