The typical notebook battery gets about 100 to 150 charge cycles per year and lasts about three years before degrading to the point where it needs to be replaced. Using the Beckman Institute's techniques, five or six years is doable, and eventually we might see a 10-year computer battery.

"This is kind of cool, and very needed today," says Stanley Williams, senior researcher and head of the Quantum Science Research (QSR) group at HP Labs. "Batteries are the weak link in many of the products we use every day."

When might a self-healing battery be available? White, who was preparing a paper on the topic when we launched this story, is cautious, saying that the microcapsule method is still in the lab. Still, he says that adding microcapsules to a battery shouldn't interfere with the way they are made and shouldn't add too much to the cost of a cell.

Long term, he adds, the process could be used to fix all sorts of electronics, even an electric car's battery, effectively repairing it before we even know it's broken. Next on White's list are the power transformers and capacitors that make our electrical power grid work. If his group succeeds, someday we could conceivably see an end to power failures.

Neural computer control: Thoughtful computing