Danger Will Robinson! Be careful about this one. You don't have to dig too deep to find the free energy junk science here. Betavoltaic? Shmetavoltaic.

If a hot laptop was know to reduce the production of sperm in male users, will this type of laptop battery eventually cause sterility? I rather call a notebook a "portable" and use it on a desk (a metal or thich wood desk preferred) and protect my male organs from excess heat and radiation leakage. If the cost of this new battery is high, I will keep my present ThinkPad with extra conventional batteries, or wait for the next generation of the OLPC XO model.

Raymond

Hmm, indeed. Supposedly the process involved is indeed 'clean' in that the radioactive waste is contained in the battery casing. Break that, though, and get ready to get checked out with a Geiger counter by men in big suits.

Also I've heard that this process results in a 'self-destructing' battery where the process itself breaks down the components. More info is needed before releasing a report like this.

Evidently the writer doesn't know much about beta radiation or for that matter radiation, period. If he did, he would know that beta radiation is blocked by anything thicker than paper. So, unless someone breaks open the battery and SMEARS the material on their skin or swallows it, I think people are fairly safe. And if that happens, submit them for a Darwin award for helping to clean the gene pool.

of course there is also the idea that this is developed by the USAF, so it most likely is intended for use by combat techs, not your average day to day user. I am fairly certain that the military is probably already using this in their field gear.

I have a feeling that Mr. Adam Frucci's source on this story was an email he received that also happened to tout the benefits of Vi@gra.

Hell with a laptop...build one for my freaking car because Gas prices has turned my car into an Alcoholic on Saturday night that has made me a slave to big Oil bank account.

The betavoltaic report is urban myth and crackpot science brought to you under the banner of alternative energy industries; the curious people at Pure Energy Systems - seemingly endorsed by the Wikipedia attachment called Peswicki and a hugely silly entry headed ''PowerPedia:BetaVoltaic''

http://www.phact.org/e/z/betavoltaic.htm

http://www.phact.org/e/z/BeardenReview.htm

http://www.phact.org/e/z/bearden.htm

Nutters abound in the free power or safe nuclear power cell fraternity: Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet, Jerry Decker, Tom Bearden and many many more.

Fun stuff, if you like to ponder the ignorance and sometimes borderline insanity that floats a few boats.

Further diminishing the credibility of Wikipedia by association, now rated at 1.25 on the Beano scale.

cheers.

Hey, no one seems to mind having microwave emitters seated on their laps for hours at a time - and the clock speeds on laptop processors have been up over egg-boiling territory for many years now.

So what are you more worried about? Some occasional scattered secondary radiation from beta rays which themselves are contained totally inside a nuclear battery, or microwaves inexorably leaking out through the holes in your laptop made to accommodate peripheral ports?

If your huevos could have been made rancheros by your laptop, pardner, it would have happened already. So far, mine work just fine despite years of close proximity to a circuit board that runs well above the frequency used by microwave ovens. No complaints from the little woman, anyway.

Big oil big electric and big idiots will see that this never gets off the ground. Might find a use in the military though powering some type of sacro suit or powered armor.

amazing. it's good if we can use in our laptop

@Talon75 as someone in USAF, I'm "fairly certain" you're wrong. You would be surprised how much antiquated gear we actually use.