556: The Butterfly Effect, Part 2 - The battery

It's impossible to imagine life these days without the humble battery. So as part of our ongoing Butterfly Effect series, this week we talk about the past, present and future of the battery, and how the need for stored energy became one of the biggest demands of our time. Featuring Linda Nazar, University of Waterloo professor of chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials; Jeff Dahn, co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery and principal investigator at NSERC/Tesla Canada/Dalhousie Alliance Grant, Dalhousie University; and James Morton Turner, professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College, Mass., and author of Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future.