“Researchers at the University of Cambridge are claiming to have created a lithium-air battery chemistry that solves many of the outstanding problems with that design and could revolutionize the battery industry in a way not seen since the introduction of lithium-ion. That’s a hefty claim for any organization. But if the claims prove true, the research teams might not be exaggerating. Lithium-ion batteries have given us electric vehicles, laptops and smartphones, and much of the modern digital ecosystem, but they aren’t particularly power efficient or energy dense. As the chart below shows, lithium-ion’s energy density (measured either in terms of weight or volume) is terrible compared with just about everything.”