If you’re reading this on a mobile phone or
laptop computer, you might thank this year’s
three laureates for the Nobel Prize in chemistry
for their work on lithium-ion batteries.
Yet the batteries developed by the British,
American and Japanese winners that make those
devices possible are far more revolutionary than
just for on-the-go computing and calling. The
breakthroughs the three achieved also made
storing energy from renewable sources more
feasible, opening up a whole new front in the
fight against global warming.
“This is a highly-charged story of tremendous
potential,” said Olof Ramstrom of the Nobel
committee for chemistry.
The prize announced this week went to John
B. Goodenough, 97, a German-born American
engineering professor at the University of Texas;