Big Picture Science Show | 4-14-14

 

ENCORE

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.

---

Big Picture Science Show