April 14, 2014

That's Containment!

54 minutes

We all crave power: to run laptops, charge cell phones, and play Angry Birds. But if generating energy is easy, storing it is not. Remember when your computer conked out during that cross-country flight? Why can’t someone build a better battery?

Discover why battery design is stuck in the 1800s, and why updating it is key to future green transportation (not to mention more juice for your smartphone). Also, how to build a new type of solar cell that can turn sunlight directly into fuel at the pump.

Plus, force fields, fat cells and other storage systems. And: Shock lobster! Energy from crustaceans?

Guests:

Dan Lankford – Former CEO of three battery technology companies, and a managing director at Wavepoint Ventures

Jackie Stephens – Biochemist at Louisiana State University

Kevin MacVittie – Graduate student of chemistry, Clarkson University, New York

Nate Lewis – Chemist, California Institute of Technology

Alex Filippenko – Astronomer, University of California, Berkeley

Peter Williams – Physicist, San Francisco Bay Area

Descripción en español

First released February 4, 2103.

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