Category: Technology News

Researchers have developed a battery that has a high voltage and will last a longer time than current tech.

Scientists have come up with a vitamin powered phone battery technology that will allow devices to last longer while giving them more voltage. Moreover, this could be an important step toward reducing the price tag of battery powered devices.

This new battery technology is not entirely unlike lithium-ion but are different in an important way.

The battery is different because it uses flavin – a component of vitamin B2 – as its cathode. The cathode is the part of the battery that stores the electricity. Then, that energy can be used once it is connected to a device. This vitamin powered phone battery provides a more natural solution to the question of how to keep devices charged.

Dwight Steferos from Canada’s University of Toronto, said “We have been looking to nature for a while to find complex molecules for use in a number of consumer electronics applications.” He added, “When you take something made by nature that is already complex, you end up spending less time making new material.”

The vitamin powered phone battery provides a very affordable way of giving mobile devices the charge they need.

This is not the first time a battery has been made with bio-derived components. However, this is the first rechargeable battery using bio-derived polymers. Polymers are long chain molecules. They are used for one of this new battery technology’s electrodes.

This technology’s key is the possibility it opens for keeping the energy stored within a vitamin-created plastic. The plastic is far less expensive than traditionally-used metals such as cobalt. The vitamin-created plastic is also more environmentally friendly and easier to process. It may play a central role in reducing our dependence on portable battery packs due to inadequate charge.

The scientists developed the material from vitamin B2. They sourced the vitamin from genetically-modified fungi. They used a semi-synthetic process for polymer preparation. It linked a long-chain molecule with two flavin units.

The result is a vitamin-powered phone battery that is environmentally friendly with a high voltage and with a high capacity. These and the rest of the findings from the researchers were published in the Advanced Functional Materials journal.

Quick response codes may soon be a prime way to identify which products contain GMO ingredients.

A huge debate is currently raging over the use of food label QR codes to reveal the presence of GMO ingredients. Supporters think this is a quick and easy way to provide consumers with this information. Those opposed feel that it is not enough to make the presence of GMO ingredients known.

A new law has been signed by President Barack Obama that requires GMO foods to be clearly labeled.

This law tells food manufacturers that they must show when genetically modified ingredients are used in their products. It must be presented in plain writing, include an icon created by regulators, or offer information via food label QR codes. That said, healthful food advocates have said that the quick response codes place a barrier between the consumer and the labeling information they need.

Food label QR codes would require the consumer to use a smartphone or tablet to scan with a dedicated app.

The advocates would like GMO ingredients to be labeled more explicitly than that. If a QR code scan is required in order to obtain the information, not all consumers will be able to easily access it.

According to the Just Label It advocacy group chairperson, Gary Hirshberg, “It is my hope that food corporations reject high-tech gimmicks like QR codes.” Similarly, the Organic Consumers Association activist group has launched a new online petition. The petition against the labeling law that allows GMO disclosures through barcodes currently has over 500,000 signatures. That total was achieved in its first week, and the number continues to grow.

At the same time, food manufacturers insist that using food label QR codes is not for deception. There is no subterfuge in their goals, they say. Food Marketing Institute senior vice president of industry relations, Mark Baum, said “I think it’s a red herring,” of the law’s critics. That institute conducted a study which revealed that only one in five American consumers will scan quick response codes to learn about food products. That said, Baum feels that the number of scanning consumers will rise as more detailed information becomes available through this method.