A man has built a rechargeable battery pack big enough to power his whole home - using the batteries from discarded vapes. Electronics engineer Chris Doel, 26, stripped the lithium batteries from 500 binned vapes to create a single one large enough to run his entire house electrics for eight hours. He wired the 2.5 kWh battery in to his home with an inverter and ran all electrical components entirely off-grid for eight hours, including the microwave, kettle, and all lighting. Chris, who works fo

In this week’s House Science, Space, and Technology hearing, I asked the Under Secretary of Science why the President’s budget request for solar and wind technology was zeroed out. He talked about advancing the fundamentals of basic science, but when I asked whether he disagreed with Secretary Wright’s claim that wind and solar infrastructure is worthless when it’s dark outside or the wind isn’t blowing, he couldn’t answer. This administration is a walking paradox.