Cell phone batteries are, at best, problematic: just ask anybody who bought an iPhone 4S and discovered it sucked power like a Decepticon on a bender. Fortunately, wherever there’s a first world problem, there’s a lot of money to solve it. Science to the rescue!

Northwestern University researchers have redesigned the lithium-ion battery, which powers just about everything you own, with silicon. The problem with a pure silicon battery is that silicon is fragile and cracks easily, meaning the battery is useless if you drop it or even overcharge it. So instead of that, they used layers of silicon and everybody’s favorite carbon allotrope, graphene. They punched tiny holes in the graphene to allow more flow from the silicon, which can hold more lithium atoms, and suddenly, you had a battery that charged lightning fast.

The team estimates this design will be on the market between 2014 and 2017. We can’t wait: we’ve got quad-core tablets that need powering.

[ via the traffickers of the graphene at Wired ]

The latest nano-material to get nanotech researchers all hot and bothered is Graphene: a one-atom-thick honeycomb of carbon atoms that looks like it can do everything from making much more powerful batteries to replacing silicon as the semiconductor material of choice. And now, researchers at Vanderbilt University have found another use for it: making things either super-absorb or super-repel water.

The researchers have developed a method for applying Graphene sheets to materials in two different ways: “rug” or “brick.” In a rug formation, the sheets form an even surface that causes water to spread out, while a brick formation is uneven and causes water to bead off. Since Graphene is transparent, it could be added to any number of objects to use those properties, including water repellent clothes or glasses.

Now, Vanderbilt didn’t suggest many applications for the super-absorbent setting. We’re thinking…super-towels?

[Vanderbilt University via Endgadget]

    This guy inspired the Bruce Willis character in Unbreakable.  Fact.

Troy R. Casey and Charles W. Bamforth of the University of California have published a study on the levels of silicon in different beers.  Silicon strengthens bones, and beer is one of the main sources of it in Western countries.  Most people consume 20 to 50 mg of silicon per day. Casey and Bamforth found that the beers studied contained an average of 29.4 mg/L of silicon (13.9 mg per pint).  Barley beers contained more silicon than wheat beers.  Brews with a large amount of hops contained even more silicon.  Women seeking positions in the adult film industry contained the most silicon of all.  Non-alcoholic beers and light lagers, along with wheat lagers, contained the lowest levels of silicon. 

Then Dr. Tim Byers, deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Aurora, came along to blow up our spot when he told ABC, “To conclude any bone health benefits from this study would require a great leap.”  How about I pour you a big pilsner glass of shut up shut up you’re ruining this with your doctory chicanery.  Maybe I happen to be in a feud with the apple people, and I’m trying to change the saying to “a beer a day keeps killjoys like Dr. Tim Byers away.”  It doesn’t roll off the tongue very well; I’m working on it.  When I get this all figured out, the apple people will rue the day.

[Sources: Wiley InterScience, ABC via FARK]