Not many of us may know Battery Man, John Bannister Goodenough was 57 when he invented the lithium battery which powers our smart phones, tablets and laptops.
At 94, John unveiled a stunning new development with a colleague Maria Helena Braga, “glass electrolytes that allow substitution of lithium with low-cost sodium. Sodium that is extracted from seawater and widely available.” It dwarf’s John’s original invention and makes it redundant.
The new glass battery will allow electric cars to go three times the distance, and recharge in minutes instead of hours. It's also far safer as it won't explode and can operate in sub-zero temperatures (- 20 deg. C).
The reason for this post is what John believes in:
1. Humanity has a 30 year window to come up with an even more powerful "super battery" that will take us entirely off fossil fuels before the fuels starts running out and the environmental damage (climate change) becomes irreversible.
John says, "I want to solve this problem before my chips are in ....."
2. At an event in Honolulu in October 2016 the topic chosen was 'Celebration in the Giving' probably in honor of his contributions and there John explains that it is not just in the giving but in this ‘partnership of giving and receiving’. Please watch the video where John cross-links humanities and science with a riveting example from Neil Bohr.
Quoting Bohr, he says, “I came up with the principle of complementarity ...,
[[[ complementarity means:
a relationship or situation in which two or more different things improve or emphasize each other's qualities.
"a culture based on the complementarity of men and women"
and for those of you who are not physicists it means:
that while the location of an electron in an atom cannot be precisely known, it can be explained in terms of both momentum (i.e., matter) and as wave (energy)]
]]
... while contemplating on ‘mercy and justice’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVUXh-zF8NY
Edited by
jaish
on Thu 09/26/19 07:53 AM