Computer batteries deserve the scorn we show them every day. So it is easy to forget that they are the best way to store energy that anyone has mass-produced. It's stunning really. Every anthropologist, psychologist, biologist or Scientologist in the world has a unique definition of what makes humans human. "Storing things nicely" must appear on someone's list. Storing food allowed Mesopotamians to build cities. Storing nuclear weaponry helped the U.S. win the Cold War. Yet there's no good, cheap way to bottle the thing that matters most. Power. Electricity. The streaming electrons that make modernity modern. Consequently, we have to recharge computer batteries every four hours or so.

AC Propulsion is a 14-year old Pasadena company that most recently gutted a Toyota Scion and replaced its internal-combustion engine with an array of computer batteries. The Lithium-Ion batteries in your lap top are referred to in the biz as "18650s" for their size (18 mm x 650 mm). Half a dozen or so power your laptop. The company's experimental T-zero needs 7,000 to manage the highway. The company played a supporting role in the recent film, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" They would have figured more prominently in the film--but they were too busy driving their research forward.