T-Cells, AA Cells, Leaf Cells
In this week’s newsletter I look at a video I watched recently on Facebook, promising a life hack for getting more bang for your buck when it comes to disposable batteries. Although, from what I can tell, the only bang you’re likely to get with this hack is exploding batteries.
Speaking of exploding batteries, Robyn Ramsden, who has recently returned to university after a long hiatus to finish her science degree (which has included a lot of looking at rocks), has written an article about a recent personal experience witnessing people’s fear of exploding batteries in electric vehicles. She also discusses some of the other concerns people have about owning an electric car, and talks about her reasons for buying one.
Finally Matthew Willey wrote about the wonders of blood on Facebook this week, and I’ve commandeered his words for our newsletter. No, he’s not been discussing the debacle that’s unfolded around the family with a sick child who needed a blood transfusion as part of a life-saving operation, who are now being used as ammunition in a war against the government by Liz Gunn, Alex Jones and others. It turns out that Matthew has been considering his own blood, and is enamoured with its amazing ability to help make sure he doesn’t die of a viral infection.
For anyone who knows Matthew, I’m sure you’ve been entertained by some of the amazing Facebook posts he writes about the trials and tribulations of bringing up his daughter Alice - as well as some very enjoyable articles he’s written about science. I’m hoping we’ll be able to read more from Matthew in the coming months, as he’s promised to write us some articles for the newsletter, and has also given me permission to steal any of his Facebook posts that I think might interest you all.
Next week Craig will be writing the newsletter, and then we’re taking a couple of weeks off to enjoy the holidays - so you’ll hear from me again on the 9th of January. If between now and then any of you feels an irresistible compulsion to write an article for our newsletter (which would make me very happy), please send it to news@skeptics.nz and I’ll feature it in our first issue of 2023.
Mark Honeychurch
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In this week's newsletter
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Boiling Batteries
I have a friend who I’ve written about before who, although she’s always had pseudoscientific ideas (like giving her children homeopathic remedies), since the pandemic has fallen down the rabbit hole and is currently at the bottom of said hole, picking up more and more daft ideas as she sits there, wallowing. I haven’t seen her in a while now - not since I bumped into her at the parliament protest in February - but I do hear about her recent high jinks, and I see her Facebook posts which suggest that she’s given up any effort to think critically.
A couple of weeks ago, she shared a video titled “Battery factories don't want you to know this!”, which you can watch at:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1997723607098296
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The “trick” that Big Battery doesn’t want you to know is, apparently, that non-rechargeable batteries are actually rechargeable. Presumably the battery lobby keeps this quiet to maximise their profits - after all, if we were all able to recharge our batteries, we’d never need to buy new ones.
So, what is this one simple trick that has been suppressed and hidden from us? Easy, just bring a pan of water to the boil, and drop your batteries in there! Here’s how the voiceover for the video starts:
I have never bought batteries again since I learned this hack. Our grandparents used this trick. So, guys, check this out.
You probably have a lot of discharged batteries like these at home, right? I have all these in my house, and these batteries can cost a lot of money. Especially this brand right here (holding a Duracell battery) - a small package of them, at least here in my city, can be quite expensive. So, here’s the thing.
An old friend gave me this tip on how we can recharge this type of battery, even though they’re not rechargeable. I tried it here at home and, to my surprise, it really worked.
The narrator then proceeds to show that the batteries are discharged, by putting them into a set of electronic weighing scales and unsuccessfully attempting to turn the appliance on. He continues:
So this is what we’re going to do. First, put some water on to boil. Then, take the discharged batteries and put them directly in the water. Let’s leave it here for about 1 minute.
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After the time, we can turn off the heat. Let’s go ahead and remove the batteries now. You’ll see that the plastic shrinks a little, but that’s totally fine because of the hot water. So go ahead and remove the batteries, but be sure to leave a container with very cold water right next to it, alright, so we can give them a thermal shock to bring them back to life. And to help even more, add some ice cubes too. Let’s leave it here for two more minutes.
He then removes the batteries from the cold water, using a paper towel to dry them. He places the batteries into the scales, and the scales now turn on. He finishes by saying:
It’s a really good life hack to save money. So, if you have bad batteries there, don’t throw them away any more. Try this instead, and you’ll definitely be able to use them for much longer.
Okay, so in case this needs saying, I’m going to state this now: Don’t boil your batteries in water. Not lithium batteries, or alkaline ones, carbon zinc or silver oxide. And the same goes for rechargeable batteries - nickel metal hydride, nickel cadmium, lithium ion, etc. Just don’t do it. Why, because it’s dangerous. Batteries contain acid, and this can leak. They can also explode. Additionally, you can render rechargeable batteries useless if you heat them up.
So, assuming this trick actually works, what might be going on here?
Well, batteries work using a simple chemical reaction where an acid electrolyte reacts with two different cathode and anode metals, and the reactions with both metals result in a flow of electrons between them. Once reacted, the chemical products drop to a lower, more stable energy level. When most of the chemicals have reacted and produced their electron flow, the battery is considered dead. With rechargeable batteries, pushing electrons back through the battery’s circuit can reverse the chemical reaction, placing the battery back into a high energy state where it can then be reused. Modern batteries are mostly “dry cell”, where a paste (possibly ammonium chloride) is used as the acid, and the cathode and anode might be carbon and zinc respectively.
Of course, when a battery is considered “dead”, it’s not actually stopped working - it’s just come to the point where the remaining reaction doesn’t produce enough voltage to power the device the batteries are plugged into. But it turns out there are some ways you can coax a dead battery to increase its reaction rate for a little while, ways to nudge what little reactants are left to come into contact with each other and give a final little burst of energy. Throwing your batteries into boiling water is likely to be one of those ways that you could have an effect on the internals of a battery, to cause the chemicals inside to shift a little and provide a slightly more vigorous reaction for a little while.
There are other “old wive’s tales” of how to revive batteries, to get them to start working again. Banging them against a table or other hard surface is one of them, as is throwing them on the ground. And freezing them is another one. All of these seem to share this same method, that you’re trying to nudge the internals of the battery just enough to get a little more of the chemical reaction to happen. (Again, I shouldn’t have to say this, but in case this article is being read by someone on the internet looking for a way to save money, do not drop, throw, bang or freeze your batteries!)
So, it seems that this “one simple trick” isn't actually recharging the batteries at all, it's just letting you squeeze a little more power out of them. And that will probably only give you a very small amount of extra battery life. This may look impressive for a device like a TV remote control, where the device is only used for short periods of milliseconds or seconds, and draws a very low current - you might get an extra week or two out of batteries that have already lasted for two or three years. But for a device that needs to be powered continuously, like a digital camera, you’ll probably find that this extra oomph only gives you another minute or less of usable power, if anything.
This difference in device power requirements probably explains why the video I watched chose to use kitchen scales as their testing device - it would have looked a lot less impressive if the batteries had been placed in a high power draw device like a torch (flashlight if you’re so inclined), and the light level started dropping as soon as it was turned on. Of course, after explaining all of this to my 15 year old daughter, she pointed out that the video was also not a continuous shot, and any of the cuts could have been a good opportunity to swap the dead batteries out for fresh ones. (And yes, I’m definitely a proud father whenever one of my daughters comes up with a skeptical point like this)
This silly idea reminds me of another, older internet hoax that spread through viral videos - the idea that larger batteries, from square lantern batteries up to car batteries, are made of lots of smaller AA or AAA batteries. These hoax videos would show someone cutting into a car battery, for example, with a hacksaw, peeling off the top, and then pouring out a hundred or more AA batteries.
The truth is that some of these larger batteries, like the lantern battery, will likely contain smaller sealed battery cells, but those will not be AA sized, and there won’t be 32 of them. You’re likely to find four large 1.5v cells soldered together with wires in a 6v lantern battery - not something that’s usable in your home appliances. And again, for any random people on the internet reading this article, DO NOT CUT INTO A BATTERY WITH A HACKSAW.
Thankfully it appears these videos have been expunged from YouTube, and replaced with more sensible videos where people debunk the rumours:
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So, if these tricks don’t work, how do you extend the life of your AA batteries at home? Simple, use modern rechargeable batteries. But bear in mind that they’re not cheap, and they’ll usually run out of power quicker than a good quality disposable battery - so they won’t be appropriate in all cases. However for some cases, like kids’ toys that need a lot of power and are used sporadically, you might find that rechargeable batteries hit that sweet spot where they’ll end up saving you money.
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EVs at Wai Wheels Featherston
Robyn Ramsden
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I, along with some other electric vehicle enthusiasts, attended the Wai Wheels Featherston fundraising event for our son’s school. There were 7 electric cars; a Tesla 3 Performance, a Tesla X, two Minis in British Racing Green, two Kia EV6s and my little Nissan Leaf. Some had attended many events like this, and had just been to the Go Green Expo the weekend before. We happily paid the small show fee, as it was fundraising for the school, but when we arrived we weren’t lined up with the other cars on display. Instead we were placed adjacent to the other cars, far away in the back corner, because of some nonsense about EVs catching fire. I was initially taken aback; surely they were joking.
I was completely sceptical that it was true, having already done a fair bit of reading about EVs prior to purchasing mine a couple of years earlier. But I took another look at the available statistics, which are not New Zealand based and are based on the number of sales rather than the total number of cars on the road, so already it’s not quite the answer I was looking for.
A USA based auto insurance company had the easiest to find statistics at the time, while I was standing dumbfounded in the schools sports field:
https://www.autoinsuranceez.com/gas-vs-electric-car-fires/
They claim that hybrid cars are the worst, at 3,474.5 fires per 100,000 vehicles, then gas/petrol at 1,529.9 per 100,000 vehicles and finally electric at 25.1 per 100,000 vehicles. Looks like the 150 + Molotov cocktails that made up the majority of the ‘car show’ were more of a danger than 7 electric cars.
So why this instant assertion by the organisers that our electric vehicles were more of a danger than the petrol cars?
About a month earlier a Nissan Leaf had caught fire in Atawai. An accident had been successful in rupturing the battery pack. It’s quite hard to do this, according to the people in the know, and I felt sorry for the owner. But could our first recorded Nissan Leaf fire prompt so much fear? Would this one electric car fire prompt so much fear that it was why we were segregated to the back corner of the fundraiser (near houses and under trees).
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How many electric cars do we have in New Zealand?
According to the Ministry of Transport, that number is 61,892 combined BEVs (that’s the technical term for a fully electric car - Battery Electric Vehicle) and PHEVs (these are hybrids - Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles). In Wellington there is only 7,825 EVs (Electric Vehicles) and PHEVs. This consists of the classes Heavy, Light and Motorcycle. The total number of vehicles on the road is 4,754,040. So, 1.3% of vehicles on our roads are some form of electric vehicle.
I’m ready to acknowledge that, once alight, lithium battery fires burn hotter and longer and are therefore harder to put out than petrol fires. But why the hostility?
Moving on.
There were a few questions or rather statements that were on repeat at the show, like “What will we do with all those used batteries?”
Well, for a start, lithium batteries are not the same as acid batteries, and their disposal is different. With that in mind, the government set up the Battery Industry Group (or BIG) in 2019. Their task is to work out how to recycle lithium batteries in New Zealand. The biggest problem appears to be that lithium batteries for cars are lasting longer than expected, and once removed from cars they are being used in more ways than expected. For example, they have been added to solar setups, providing additional energy storage.
Questions around range came up a lot. I heard statements like ‘I want a car that will drive to Auckland without stopping’. How many people in petrol cars drive that far without stopping? Honestly!
My Nissan Leaf 30kWh was the car with the lowest range there. I can go from Featherston to Victoria University, and back to Upper Hutt, before I need a charge to get up and over the Rimutaka hill. If there wasn’t a hill there I wouldn’t even need a top up. My family drove to Napier and back a couple of weekends ago, three stops up and three back - no problem.
The Teslas, Minis and Kias at the show have a much larger range than my Leaf. The Teslas can go over 400 kms before needing a charge. But still that wasn’t enough for some. I remember when I had a petrol car, we still needed to fill up at some point on a long trip, and also stopped often to let the kids run off steam.
When told that stopping to charge was inconvenient, we did talk about what I do while waiting for the car to charge. I nip off to the loo, get a coffee or get in some quality reading time. I chat with other electric vehicle owners who are waiting to use the charger. We love talking about our cars, and mine takes less than 10 mins to charge most of the time.
That brings me to the often cried issue of charging infrastructure.
Most of the time I charge my car at home in the garage using the 3-point plug. I plug in after 9pm, once the evening peak load has finished. If I was driving every day I’d set up the onboard timer that starts and stops the car charging, but I don’t drive often enough to bother with that.
When I’m out going further than the ~120 km range my car has, I use ChargeNet. They have the most charges. Prices are based on how many kWh you draw. For example our recent trip to Napier cost under $30. There are many ChargeNet charging stations these days, and some of the electricity companies have set up chargers too. I’d like for there to be shelters, as it’s not much fun plugging the car in when it’s raining, or sitting in the car in the heat of the day.
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I did have someone ask me if I can drive in the rain. Ahh, yes. I also wash the car with water. Funny.
Twice a year I go to the local garage to check my car’s tyre pressure. Spongy tyres reduce your range and driving fun, but this is the same with petrol cars.
I think the main thing I found was that I was disappointed with the misinformation the organisers perpetuated, which resulted in us being stuck out of the way.
So, with the limited range of my Leaf, why did I buy an EV?
Really it came down to the decision we made as a family to reduce our CO2 load. I’d been studying climate change while completing an Earth Sciences degree. I knew we were in for a bad ride when, at the beginning of a paper called ‘Climate change in the New Zealand context’, the lecturer offered us free counselling at the University. I don’t know if anyone took them up on the offer, but that paper really brought home the predicament we, as a species, are in. It’s not just cars, it’s how our energy is made. Anything that is made from fossil fuels is a problem. This includes coal and gas generated electricity, aviation gas for planes, diesel for trucks, buses and trains, petrol for cars, etc. But it also includes things people don’t often consider, like the plastics we make things out of, such as toys, clothing, food wrapping, TVs, phones and cars. We can’t recycle our way out of this mess, and we cannot do it alone - we need governments to make the hard collective decisions. Yet we see the IPCC and COP meetings achieving very little or nothing at all.
I’m sceptical we can actually get out of the mess we have ourselves in. There are too many people holding too tightly to the past, and more and more people wanting lifestyles that will ultimately lead to disaster. I guess in a way Buddha was right when he said that “desire leads to suffering”.
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Go, T-Cells!
Matthew Willey
At this very moment, there is a war going on in my body.
It is a war of unimaginable scale, with billions of participants. It is a war that has been going on, not just in my body but in the body of all my ancestors, since time immemorial.
If my side loses, I die. Indeed, the costs on both sides couldn’t be higher.
I have some reason to think my side will prevail. Every single one of my ancestors fought this war and won. I have had immunisations which have tipped the hand of the invaders to the defenders. If the war gets to a certain point, I can call in medical allies who are armed with antiretrovirals and oxygen.
But we are a long way from that, the war is still being waged internally.
It is a war filled with participants of mind boggling complexity. Machines and soldiers and weaponry are being cranked out for a war that relies on subterfuge, diversion, tactics, weight of numbers and murderous intent.
The battlefield that sends my temperature soaring and my heart pounding is too complex for one human to grasp. The immune system is a mountain of incomplete sciences that work together in a way that we do not fully comprehend.
My defences start at the skin, and that simple wrapping has kept me safe until now. No virus can penetrate the armour. But over the weekend, someone sneezed and I inhaled a droplet, or I touched my eyes, and a virus found itself into my sinuses.
This virus is evolution incarnate. Utterly without purpose, and ruthlessly effective. Over the weekend it invaded my mucous membranes (feel free to skip) and replicated in hundreds, then millions, then billions.
Forewarned, my adaptive immune response set about replicating this, literally, feverish growth. By Monday I noticed a slight sniffle, my only awareness of the beginnings of a calamitous onslaught. By Monday night it occurred to me to do a RAT test, and the situation dawned.
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By that time, an armada of baffling complexity was swinging into action. Tipped off by my vaccinations, my adaptive immune response churned out lymphocytes, B-Cells, T-Cells and many other warriors and weapons. A system akin to military intelligence sent signals from the front lines to where vast hatcheries in my marrow turned out foot soldiers.
My army set to work engulfing, spearing, eating, tearing apart every virus particle it could find.
Because the virus hit the ground running, my adaptive immune system needed a few days to reach full strength. It is an armada of dazzling size and a ruthless destroyer. That it knows the difference, in the white heat of battle, between friend and foe is only one of its many miracles.
It’s day three, and I’m bouncing off the walls with a high temperature whilst I shakily make my way to the bathroom.
I have had plenty of time to think, and what occurs to me is the sheer alienness of viruses. We live in a world of purpose, of cause and effect. A virus does not. It has no intention to invade and maim and kill, yes it does so with breathtaking precision. It is evolution, pure and simple. Without human bodies, it would be extinct in hours.
To say that it has a purpose is equivalent to saying gravity wants to pull. We can’t understand something so tiny, so economically, so parsimoniously destructive, and yet for it to have no reason at all.
My immune system is the result of fighting wars like this, high stakes wars on an unimaginable scale, but for nothing. The only prize is survival.
I strongly recommend the Kurtgesagt book “Immune”. It shows a glimpse of the vast and underexplored wonder that is the immune system. And that’s where I do find meaning, in the microscopic immensity of it all, lying weakly in bed on a Wednesday night, at 38.5 degrees and falling.
Go, T-Cells. You got this. I’m sorry I gave you zero thought last week.
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