It's zinc.

I'd say zinc.

It has to be galvanized or solid zinc.

Do you think the zinc really works?

They've discovered a new bond, a new material for transparent solar cells.

You view the bond in the triangle.

This metal is called zinc.

Here's the first battery a stack of coins, zinc and silver, separated by cardboard soaked in brine.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.

No. It's nothing. I'm taking zinc.

Everything you see in this picture is commercial grade copper, lead, silver, zinc and gold.

And you can do it the same, over and over again.

You're not even looking at lithium ion, you're looking at cheap batteries. You know, you're

And we've all heard of charge.

Battery's the power source.

So something I think is very fascinating is

Phone's dead.

The battery is flat.

And computers don't go to sleep.

battery dead.

Oh, shit, man. Your battery's dead.

We call this our sushi circuit. It's very popular with kids.

My battery dead.

Crap, it's burnt out.

Roaming drains the battery. All right.

Basically, by controlling the genes, you can control multiple materials to improve your device performance.

This battery is charged.

And this is produced by bacteria who are actually making more sulfuric acid, and living at pHs right around zero.

Batteries must be running down.

Three of the four cells are gone.

You forgot the batteries?

Lithium. Like camera batteries. Odd.

The battery.

May I have some camera batteries, please?

Please give me batteries for a camera.

Typically, these things are put in the ground.

Took a few photos. I got my satellite phone out.

And the battery runs on a... a chemical reaction.

It needs new batteries.

Do you sell batteries?

I hired students and post docs and mentored them.

This is an overview of the solar cell prototype.

What is that, carbon fibre?

But the reactors were still managing decay heat.