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Lithium ion battery

How Professor John Goodenough's lithium ion battery kick-started the wireless revolution.

Forty years ago, Professor John Goodenough developed the lithium ion battery and kick-started the wireless revolution. From electric cars to mobile phones, the world now relies on rechargeable batteries. Now, 97, and just awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Professor Goodenough still works at the University of Austin in Texas. Seventeen-year-old Adam from Poland asks him about lessons from life as well as lessons from science, and why he still works on developing the lithium ion battery even further.

Producer: Tamsin Barber.

World Wise Web is a co-production between BBC World Service and BBC Rewind.
Music composed by Nick Thorburn

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10 minutes

Last on

Mon 27 Jan 202004:50GMT
BBC World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean & East Asia only

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Image credit

3D rendering of a lithium ion electric vehicle battery (Credit: Getty Images)

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  • Sat 25 Jan 202005:50GMT
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  • Sat 25 Jan 202018:50GMT
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  • Sun 26 Jan 202005:50GMT
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  • Mon 27 Jan 202004:50GMT
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