The Meaning of Life

Editor of our associate website Electropaedia, Barrie Lawson, takes a wry look at the meaning of life— not from a philosophical point of view— but from that of batteries.

We have all learned from photographs of laptop fires as well as aircraft fires that lithium-ion energy cells can be potential incendiary devices. Based on highly reactive chemistry that under certain circumstances can result in thermal runaway and serious consequential physical damage, they can be particularly dangerous with large format traction batteries.

Since they were first introduced in the 1970s, much work has been done to . . .