Episode
49/110
Watch America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 2
In this chapter

In 1976, chemist Stanley Whittingham invented the first functional rechargeable lithium battery while working at Exxon Research and Engineering, establishing a stable chemistry that could hold and deliver charge. This work laid the foundation for the batteries used in modern electronics like cell phones and laptops, and earned him a share of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Transcript

159 words · auto-generated from the episode video

1:00:14>> We're moving forward to 1976 invention of the lithium battery. Yes, big one. >> This is a big one. This is why you we've got cell phones and this laptop here it's able to hold charge. The chemist Stanley Whittingham invented the first functional rechargeable lithium battery at Exxon research and engineering and then um he established that this baseline chemistry can actually give you stable charge and stable power. It earned him a share of the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry transformed modern electronics. >> 1976 discovery of protoonco genes. >> Yes. Microbiologists Michael Bishop and

1:00:57Harold Varmmuse. They discovered the cellular origin of retroviral enco. And they showed that these enco genes derive from normal cellular genes. It's nothing like there's no like outside influence. Sometimes the cancer can just come from within. Um it comes from the host's own genome. >> 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. 1977, one of my favorites, the Voyager

From the episode
  1. EP 47

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 2

    Part two of our America 250 special traces American science from Sputnik to the AI age, covering Apollo, ARPANET, CRISPR, LIGO, mRNA vaccines, JWST, transformers, and the future of science funding.

    America 250: The Breakthroughs That Built American Science — Part 2

History of ScienceAmerica 250