http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
Engadget: Spin is a quantum mechanical quantity without a physical analogue. It has nothing to do with magnetics or domains or anything like that.]]>Oct 9th 2008 3:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 4:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
A constant heat at one end is not the same as heat generated by electrical resistance. Well heat is heat, but the point is that there will be no heat generated by the "transactions", meaning no limitation on the resonance due to heat. Think yottahertz processors. Finally something that will run Crysis on high...]]>Oct 9th 2008 4:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 4:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 3:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
...like me. Doh!]]>Oct 9th 2008 4:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 4:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 4:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
Oh no! You killed the kitty!]]>Oct 9th 2008 5:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 6:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
Or maybe you'd prefer this answer. You see, particles have spin. And this spin can be up or down or both! But when you view it, changes. It's like if you view it, this cat in a box dies. I know it's complicated, but if you keep thinking about it you'll eventually get it. That Heisenberg guy was a genius. I mean the cat is uncertain until you view it, because you can't see it beforehand! But when you see it, it's there. Metaphysics man, that's all it is. So you know, physics is really just how you perceive it. What do those guys with fancy degrees and their equations know anyway? You know what I'm saying, man? So anyway, I drink organic coffee to save the planet...]]>Oct 10th 2008 1:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys214/fall08/syllabus.html]]>Oct 10th 2008 6:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
Since no electrons hit each other in a random manner, there is no dissipation of heat. If no heat is dissipated, nothing will "generate" heat. Energy's always converted remember? The heat energy that you feed it, will be used to change spin orientations, and thus depending on their positions and variance in the spin at that position, you can manipulate mag. fields and hence manipulate info.]]>Oct 9th 2008 5:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/
when you heat a pot of water, the heat is generated by the flame (in the case of propane) or the element (in the case of electric cooktops) and transferred to the pot by conduction (element touching the pot), convection (heated air), and radiation. While the water does absorb some of that heat, it's not generating any by itself.

some chemical compounds undergo reactions that are either exothermic (producing heat) or endothermic (absorbing heat). for example, the reaction of water becoming gaseous is an endothermic one. at sea level, once you add enough energy to get the water to 100 C, you reach the point where the vapor pressure is such that it can phase change. because it's endothermic, it requires more energy to convert it to gas. if this reaction were exothermic, though, once you reached 100 C, the liquid would turn to gas and generate heat, releasing it into the remaining water.

using the analogy, the seebeck effect is neither exothermic nor endothermic. when the researchers applied heat, no heat was generated by the realignment of the spins.]]>Oct 9th 2008 6:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Oct 9th 2008 7:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/Right round like a battery, baby
Right round round round]]>Oct 10th 2008 3:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/09/researchers-say-spin-seebeck-effect-could-lead-to-new-batterie/This is a wonderful advancement by the Japanese at a time when we are exploring new ways to harness and extend energy. When my ancestor, Thomas Johann Seebeck, created the thermacouple, it was in the early 1800's. He was at the University of Jena in Germany, yet he was not a trained physicist but a medical doctor as was his on again, off again, friend and compatriot Goethe, who was also a medical doctor, turned writer, turned physicist. Yet, together they also successfully challenged some of Newton's theories on colors. At Jena, they also worked alongside the Italian, Volta, who during this period created the first battery and with them also was Peltier, the Frenchmen whose inverse application of some of Seebeck's discoveries, himself discovered what we know today as refrigeration. All of this in what became known as the Age of Electricity, which was advanced from day one by the American writer, printer, patriot, government official, Benjamin Franklin, also not a degreed physicist.

Einstein liked to say (and I am paraphrasing) that you could discover more about the universe having a picnic while sitting on a blanket under a tree on a beautiful day, than you could ever discover in a laboratory.

So, yes it is possible for those that have commented on this story to make observations that may yet advance such theories. This advancement might also cause you to consider possible solutions to many other unsolved mysteries of our planet and universe or at the very least to think about them.

This is how it all starts. The other day, a sixth grade student asked me, "Who blew the first bubble?" The class laughed, but I didn't, I was amazed and I said so and then asked why he had asked. He said because he wanted to know, who thought it up first, did we know and if so, what had motivated them?

This is how we can all become physicists, keep asking questions about the world around us and if we do, we will not only understand the why of it, but also we may discover ways in which we can all interact with the planet in a better way.

Bill Seebeck

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