• adeoxymus@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Maybe a bit irrelevant but why is the article calling it “China’s battery“? I feel like if the researchers were from any other countries academy of science, say France, the title would have simply been something like “scientists discover new ways for fireproof battery”. Maybe it’d say French scientists or so, but not simply “France’s battery”?

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Classic fluff piece to make China look more innovative than they actually are. I wouldn‘t be surprised if we never heard of this tech or if they recycle the same article next year. Tech ‚journalism‘ about China is a mine field of false claims and exaggerations.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        These batteries are already in production cars. Have been for a while. If you don’t have access to them it’s because of your regressive protectionist government.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          No no no. China is Fake News. They don’t even make cars. If they made cars, I would have seen Chinese cars driving around in America.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            4 hours ago

            Regressive protectionism isn’t exactly unique to the American auto industry but yea.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        9 hours ago

        Na+ batteries are really cool tech, and with a few more iterations of R&D they can potentially replace Li+ batteries, removing the need for rare earth elements that are toxic to people and the environment, dangerous to extract, and more often than not extracted by child slave labor (such as in Xinjiang and Congo).

        It doesn’t matter how you feel about China, although framing Na+ as “China’s battery” is problematic for other reasons.

          • Boost@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            My understanding is that the lithium itself isn’t the issue, it’s that lithium batteries require other rare earths like cobalt where as sodium itself is not only more common than lithium, but it uses more common material like iron or tin in its battery chemistry that are also less problematic.

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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        6 hours ago

        This is recycled I read about about this last year in the same kind of context on Reddit.

        Separately though I have read there are hundreds of chemical combinations that produce electricity and only a handful have been researched for batteries.

    • Sheppa@aussie.zone
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      16 hours ago

      Because cool China is so totally innovative unlike the boring west! We gotta hype them up, no one else ever does cool stuff only China brand is cool.

      • greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo
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        9 hours ago

        They have been trying to murder the US and EU auto industry and dumping biblical shittons of money into battery technology. the EU and the US aren’t trying to compete.

        Its still an advancement for all mankind, even if my countries leadership wont let me have one.

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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          6 hours ago

          They have been trying to murder the US and EU auto industry and dumping biblical shittons of money into battery technology. the EU and the US aren’t trying to compete.

          China invests in R&D, Trump slashed scientific research.

      • Specter@piefed.social
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        11 hours ago

        Actually it’s the other way around.

        The internet is all about “China Bad” so calling it China Battery is a way to depreciate this obviously positive discovery.

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          Is this “china always bad” internet in the room with us right now? Do you deny the positive sentiment in this very thread you’re posting in right now?

        • Sheppa@aussie.zone
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          11 hours ago

          “Should we just not talk about this awesome new tech?”

          “No, let’s put China in front of this totally awesome thing so people will think it’s bad while we hype it up as such a great invention in the article. Oh and don’t mention working conditions, state subsidies, mineral extraction, or any of the usual anti-China talking points, that might make them think it’s not bad”

          • Specter@piefed.social
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            10 hours ago

            I’m sorry you live with so much gratuitous hatred in your heart and I pray you can recover some day.

            • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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              9 hours ago

              How is pointing out the flaw in your logic “gratuitous hatred”? It doesn’t make any sense that the rationale for calling it “China’s battery” is to make it sound bad, when the article is clearly extolling the virtues of the battery.

              Or is it the part where the other commenter brought attention to the working conditions in China? Because that’s not motivated by hatred, but rather class solidarity. How badly do you have to hate Chinese people to believe Chinese workers don’t deserve better conditions? What about ethnic minorities in China who are having their cultural heritage stripped away from them?

              Is it because the government officials aren’t white, so you believe they can do no wrong? So you’ll just call any legitimate criticism of them racist? That’s like Israel calling anti-zionism anti-semitic. There’s nothing sinophobic about legitimate criticisms of the PRC.

              • Specter@piefed.social
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                4 hours ago

                Nice argument you’re having with yourself there, buddy. Seems like you have quite a lot to pour out.

                I don’t have any affinity for China, but I also don’t like the gratuitous hate they get all over the internet, nor the reduction of Chinese people’s experience to work drones (what you’re doing).

                I had hoped that Lemmy wasn’t gonna be like that, but alas.

              • village604@adultswim.fan
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                8 hours ago

                People who support China don’t seem to comprehend that shitty countries aren’t a zero sum game.

                You can shit on China’s government while also shitting on the US government.

                • marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today
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                  1 hour ago

                  No one says it’s a zero sum but you people always assume it’s a shitty government without any real information to back that up besides NED-written or sponsored articles.

                  Like if you admit the US sucks, why believe their propaganda?

    • Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      16 hours ago

      Because (most people believe) China controls its scientists with iron fist and they only research what the state wants them to research.

      • Rolder@reddthat.com
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        16 hours ago

        For me it’s because they have a tendency to… exaggerate, their research results.

        • Kushan@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Sodium batteries are real though. You can buy them today, their big promise was that they would be cheaper than lithium batteries because sodium is abundant and readily available whereas lithium is a rare mineral. Then lithium prices fell through the floor and the value proposition failed, at least for now. They’re also not as energy dense, which is probably what will hold then back from EV use for a while yet, but the claim around being safer holds up.