This is big news since unlike current solar sources of energy, where energy must be stored in batteries (with varying levels of efficiency), you can simply store the gases separately and re-combine them as you need the energy.

The researcher has teamed up with Tata group, which is good news since it lends some credibility to actually commercializing it.  It’s rediculous we’re still “drinking” oil out of the ground.  C’mon, it’s 2011.  You think it’s a coincidence that sunlight and water are two of the most abundant things on earth.  I don’t

“The chemical xenon difluoride is normally a mild-mannered white powder, but when you crush it with the pressure of 1 million times our atmosphere, it turns into a super substance. Due to some weird science, all the energy used to crush that stuff is stored inside its chemical bonds, making it a terrific energy storage device. In layman’s terms, that would be a battery.”

via DVICE:

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/07/battery-breakth.php

As exciting as this sounds, lithium-ion and lithium polymer batteries already pack a tremendous amount of energy in a very dense space.  I’m all for improving on this, but technology like this one sounds exceptionally scary-dangerous when you figure the force it takes to form the bonds in these materials.  Imagine what would happen if you dropped the thing?

In fact, forget about that, imagine what happens when the decepticons find out you have one 

Real picture of the “formed” energy cube:

“As BP sweats to clean up the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, it is simultaneously waging a public relations (PR) war, trying to fend a wave of negative attention, by buying search phrases like “oil spill” on Google and Yahoo.

When the phrase “oil spill” is typed on Google or Yahoo, the immediate result guides one to BP’s “Gulf of Mexico response”, its official page dedicated to giving information about its attempt to curtail the spill.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/27378/20100608/oil-spill.htm

It’s not that I don’t think they’re “trying” to cleanup the oil spill.  In fact, I watched them pop that cap on last Thursday live and was rather impressed with what can be done that far down in the depths of our precious oceans by ROV.

Still, seeing this article today gave me a chuckle.  From what I’ve heard they’re doing a solid job denying everyone’s loss claims over 5k and making complete asshats of themselves in the mainstream press, but hey, at least they’re spending tens of thousands on search terms.

Somehow, Google always wins.