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Solid state physics

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Metamaterials

Battery Life in Gadgets - The Science of Battery Life in Electronics. The proof, to me, was irrefutable. I had bought a new iPod within weeks of my coworker: the same generation player, running on the same lithium-ion (li-ion) cobalt oxide battery. She plugged it into her computer every day to get to her music. That seemed like an astonishing mistake—obviously, her iPod's battery would suffer, since it would cycle every day, multiple times during each 8, 10 or 12-hour workday. My player, which I ran down completely before each charge, would burn less cycles, and retain more power in the long run. A year later, her iPod could barely squeak through a subway ride from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan. Superfluid. Superconductivity.