Holding technology back

No major advances in decades makes batteries a hurdle in energy efficiency

By: Associated Press - Texarkana Gazette

This undated photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the burned auxiliary power unit battery from a JAL Boeing 787 that caught fire on Jan. 7 at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Associated Press

In a Sept. 1, 1966, file photo, a model looks at the Sinclair Micro vision set, a pocket size television set designed by Clive Sinclair that can go anywhere and claims to be the world’s smallest TV, at Earls Court, London. The rectangular face plate of the cathode tube has a diagonal measureme...

WASHINGTON—As 21st century technology strains to become ever faster, cleaner and cheaper, an invention from more than 200 years ago keeps holding it back. It’s why electric cars aren’t clogging the roads and why Boeing’s new ultra-efficient 787 Dreamliners aren’t fly...

Published: 01/23/2013