Ever used your laptop on the train? You're trying to finish a project; you get sucked in and time flies, when -- aaaaargh -- the battery dies, and you haven't saved your work!
Even if you're not so nerdy, I'm sure you've had a mobile phone conversation that went like this:
"Hi. Listen, this is really important ... no, hold on, this is really important, I have to be really quick because my battery's about to ... hello?! He ... awww shit!"
Both these scenarios could be a thing of the past if the promise of wireless electricity becomes a reality. According to the BBC:
US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires. The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.
Sounds great, until you read the next paragraph:
Although the team has not built and tested a system, computer models and mathematics suggest it will work.
Computer models and maths, eh? Why am I unconvinced?
This reminds me of another electricity-related promise made in 1999: Broadband internet delivered through power lines.
I couldn't wait; luckily I didn't. The internet via electricy dream failed, despite its promoters' insistence that "the technology was fundamentally sound".
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