Iraq may seem the central focus regarding the farcical ‘war on terror’ meme. However, Iraq happens to be one of the oldest cultures in the world. It is a place rich in heritage, the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel are said to have been sited in this ancient land. Not to mention ancient Mesopotamia (pre-Iraq) also gave us writing and the wheel.

There is however another quite remarkable device which dates back over 2,000 years; the Baghdad Battery. This device may have been used as a galvanic cell, perhaps used for electroplating objects and garnishing them with a gold or silver layer. The amazing part, if the battery was used for this purpose then it pre-dates Alessandro Volta’s 1800 invention of the electrochemical cell by more than a millennium.

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The brainiacs over at MIT claim to have discovered a way of storing solar power. They have effectively built a sun battery.

In one hour, the amount of Sun which hits the face of the Earth would provide enough energy to power the whole World for one year.

To utilize all this ‘free and abundant energy‘, they have figured out a way of efficiently splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using Earth abundant materials. MIT also claim they can safely and easily extract hydrogen using water at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. Read more…

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