I have written and posted about the work of Angie Belcher before so it is no surprise to hear this latest announcement. A team she leads has taken another step in the process of using a simple virus (millions of them) to develop key parts of battery technology. Now it is the cathode (Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes), a few years ago it was the anode (Virus-Enabled Synthesis and Assembly of Nanowires for Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes). While we are not going to be able to buy this technology next year in a Chevy Volt, hopefully they are well on the way to a better, lighter, cheaper bio-battery that will really shake-up the field. You can read more at MIT, CNET, Chemical & Engineering News, ScienceNOW, and even the full Science article from April 2nd if you subscribe to Science.
Angie, if you read this – you should check out the related work of Qian Wang at USC. Keep up the great research.