A battery is a battery is a battery, but how different is this one that was concocted by Illinois professor Paul Braun? Well, Braun and his group has managed to develop a 3D nanostructure for battery cathodes which paves the way for super fast charging as well as discharging – doing so without sacrificing energy storage capacity. Apart from this interesting attribute, the batteries are also more than able to store plenty of energy, releasing it and recharge quickly, making it suitable for electric vehicles, medical devices, lasers as well as military applications. According to Braun, “This system that we have gives you capacitor-like power with battery-like energy. Most capacitors store very little energy. They can release it very fast, but they can’t hold much. Most batteries store a reasonably large amount of energy, but they can’t provide or receive energy rapidly. This does both.” If this ever takes off successfully, then you can be sure that both lithium ion and nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries will arrive at their twilight years – if the cost is right.