If there’s one advantage paper, magazines and softcover books have over high-tech alternatives it’s that they aren’t rigid and can take a little bending here and there. Flexible batteries like this one might help even the score.
Created by Professor Keon Jae Lee at the Korean Advanced Institute Of Science And Technology, this flexible lithium-ion battery can be bent pretty far back and keep the power coming throughout the ordeal. In fact, as the clip with the voltmeter shows, bending doesn’t affect the battery’s performance at all. This is precisely what you’d need for a flexible ereader or a flexible phone.
Graphene batteries also have the potential to come in super-powerful, bendable varieties. Lithium-ion batteries are the standard right now, but this working prototype could mean it might not be long until you’re swatting flies with a rolled-up computer. [TechCrunch]