The twelfth episode of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" delves partially into the life of Misato Katsuragi, who recently received a promotion from Captain to Major. It is revealed that Misato's motivations for joining NERV are centered around her relationship with her father prior to the main storyline. More importantly, the three pilots are tasked with fighting the next Angel, a massive creature hovering just above the earth's orbit. If it can tactically propel itself into the Geofront's land based location, it can completely destroy it, setting the stage for Third Impact.
In order to stop this angel, the three pilots must perform a tactical strike of their own: they must catch the Angel as it falls and destroy its core in close combat. Compounding the issue is the Achilles heel of the Evangelion unit: if the unit is not connected to an umbilical cable, it can only be powered for five minutes on an external battery. While this seems like an easy thing to fix - and it does get fixed later in the series - it is actually something all too common with our real world. And in the real world, we too are fighting to fix it.
A fun fact is that ancient civilizations did indeed have electrochemical cells, but those cells were bulky and very weak. The Mythbusters even had an episode about these devices. In the event that you have never taken a high school physics course, the fundamental function of a battery is to release electrons that are stored within it. This is why, if you were to place a cathode and an anode into say, a potato or a watermelon, you can transfer the electrolytes into an electrical device - essentially using the food object as a battery.
However, different substances have differing properties when it comes to absorbing and releasing electric potential. Additionally, the arrangement of those materials can have a profound effect on their potentials. The past year alone has seen incredible interest in battery technology, from research into superconductors, to products which breathe new life into older battery power sources, to entirely redesigned external charging units.
As there is so much on the subject at this time, I will try to combine some supplemental readings into a list of the end of the article. But before that, I want to weigh in on whether all of this research and development is really relevant. Given that our society has become more dependent on mobile devices, you might accuse me of spouting heresy, but when you start to examine the context behind batteries themselves, all sorts of questions open up.
Foremost, the way we look of batteries does not give them enough credit as they are now. Recall that one of my more recent articles is about simple machines; why isn't the battery among them? The criteria for a simple machine are merely that it be non motorized and it that it changed the direction or magnitude of a force. Technically speaking, a battery does not qualify as a motor, and its function is to redirect Chemical Energy. Given all that, it would fit perfectly into the simple machines article because of its nature to be reinvented or to have its composition altered.
But that is also its Achilles heel; because of its simplicity, the reinventive priority drops considerably, and here's why. Let's say hypothetically that a magnetic superstorm were to knock out the electrical grids of various nations worldwide. Some experts believe that it would take up to three years to resume the grid, but it would take only weeks to mass produce batteries as portable generators for millions of people. When the chips are down, humanity can pull things like that off, and it doesn't exactly hurt that the overall design of a battery has been so constant over millennia.
The truth is, batteries are just so easy to make and break that reinventing them merely serves as a novelty. Money spent on this research and development could be spent in other technological areas; in reality, we could wait years or even decades before reinventing the battery, and there is really no opportunity cost in doing so.
The other flaw in battery technology is the perspective in which we view electricity. A battery is merely a container for which to store electricity, and if you think about it, is that really efficient? Containers can leak, or they can become worn down with multiple use, so why are we so focused on containing electricity? Does it not make more sense to focus on producing electricity in any environment, as opposed to merely transporting it?
These are just my thoughts on the matter. It will take a universal consensus to determine whether we need to maintain the status quo, redefine it, or completely alter it.
Supplemental Readings:
- Kickstarter - Cordless Tool Batteries as Additional Power
- Kickstarter - Crushproof External Batteries
- Forbes - Self-Healing Batteries
- FastCoexist - Superconducting Nanoflowers
- Forbes - Eliminating Batteries using Charged Body Panels
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