The world’s largest battery manufacturer — China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology — has officially unveiled a sodium-ion battery.
This technology could lead to widespread adoption in a market largely dependent on subsidies trib.al/vdv96sd
Sodium-ion batteries currently have a relatively lower energy density, but they run better at cooler temperatures and have a greater life span.
This makes them a better long-term investment trib.al/vdv96sd
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would drive the development, standardization and commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.
This would provide a cheaper, faster-charging and safe alternative to the current crop on offer trib.al/vdv96sd
Sodium-ion batteries aren’t a new development.
They were being researched in the 1970s, but interest was quickly overtaken by a newer, fancier, more promising variety: the lithium-ion battery trib.al/vdv96sd
The challenges with lithium-ion batteries are becoming apparent. Carmakers and battery manufacturers are focused on bringing down costs.
Lithium-ion batteries are increasingly coming up against issues, including:
Sodium-based batteries aren’t going to take EVs any further than lithium can anytime soon.
But the materials needed to make them are available. The content of sodium in earth reserves is 300 times more than lithium and is more evenly distributed trib.al/vdv96sd
That means it has a major cost advantage: These power packs could cost almost 30% to 50% less than the cheapest electric car battery options currently available.
In addition, the price of sodium is less sensitive to market gyrations compared with lithium trib.al/vdv96sd
Sodium-ion batteries will effectively need a new supply chain.
Low material costs, though, means manufacturing expenses will be reduced and honing the existing production processes to upgrade these older batteries will be faster trib.al/vdv96sd
Putting cheaper and safer options on the market means widespread accessibility for price-conscious consumers or resource-constrained nations.
Options like the sodium-ion battery offer a clear path to go electric and make headway with climate change goals trib.al/vdv96sd
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Eighteen months into the pandemic, we’re entering a new phase. While we have better Covid protection from vaccines and natural antibodies, we’re also returning to high risk environments like night clubs and offices.
New York is emerging as one of the world's most resilient cities in the wake of the pandemic.
Its success is more than just its size — it’s the Big Apple’s model of urbanism that offers something no other American metropolis can match trib.al/0SEiY77
New York was the first big city in the U.S. to be hit hard by Covid-19.
Immediately, people began predicting the pandemic would trigger a backlash against dense urban living. A wave of murder and violence followed the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests trib.al/0SEiY77
For some cities like San Francisco, the exodus seems real.
But more people moved to the New York City metropolitan area during the Covid pandemic than moved out, according to an analysis of cell phone data.
Young people are especially eager to move in trib.al/0SEiY77
With millions of kids going back to school in September, their movements are frequently tracked by parents.
The idea of digitally surveilling kids is a tricky one. Keen parents seem largely oblivious to the institutional concerns about the practice trib.al/h0I0qfW
.@parmy talked with about a dozen British parents sending their 11-year-olds to secondary school with phones.
About three-quarters said they would monitor their child’s movements through an app of some sort, largely for safety reasons trib.al/SOm7D7w
Various institutions aren’t fans of parents tracking their kids' phones.
Ireland’s data protection regulator says in its draft guidance that geolocation tracking should be turned off “by default for child users” trib.al/SOm7D7w
Never ones to miss a chance to cry “hardship,” upper-middle-class, well-educated young Americans are getting in on the Chinese “lie flat” social protest movement, claiming they, too, are burned out and quitting their jobs to do nothing trib.al/e5rjiys
It started among Chinese factory workers burned out from grueling 12-hour, six-day work weeks, and the unrelenting pressure to climb the economic ladder.
So some Chinese millennials formed a movement to opt out of work and the pressures of society trib.al/e5rjiys
What this trend will mean for China is unclear, but Americans who choose to lay down in lieu of work may end up worse off than they think trib.al/e5rjiys
On Labor Day, 7.5 million Americans lost their federal unemployment benefits, and another 3 million unemployed lost the $300 bonus that had been in place since March.
That’s a lot of people with no immediate way to support themselves and their families trib.al/pK04k9j
What would Franklin Roosevelt — who put America to work during the Great Depression — make of the way Washington has responded to this economic crisis? twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…
The New Deal’s attack on the Great Depression had four main components:
💵Temporary direct relief for the impoverished
🔐A stronger social safety net
🇺🇸An expanded regulatory state
💼Jobs for the legions of unemployed trib.al/pK04k9j
18-year-old Emma Raducanu is taking the tennis world by storm.
Her victory in the U.S. Open turned her into one of those athletes who you can’t help but watch and want to know more, or even pick up a racquet trib.al/VKDcbjm
How big is this win? @ThereseRaphael1 asked Michel Masquelier, former chairman of IMG Media.
“It’s as good as it gets,” he says. “Tennis is an individual sport, so any individual who shines on that stage is instantly recognizable” trib.al/VKDcbjm
Alongside her championship title, Raducanu has other force multipliers for propelling celebrity and commercial success. There’s her international reputation:
🇨🇳Chinese mother
🇷🇴Romanian father
🇬🇧Raised in Britain
🇺🇸Shot to fame in the U.S. trib.al/VKDcbjm