First Person: Michael Spencer

摘要

Batteries have their limitations. Even ubiquitous lithium batteries don't scale well to small sizes, and they perform poorly in harsh conditions. Michael Spencer (right), an electrical engineer and computer scientist at Cornell University and a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, works on power generation with relatively low-energy radioactive sources. Spencer explained what these so-called betavoltaic devices are, and why they are now gaining popularity, to managing editor Fenella Saunders. (Spencer also works with two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, that are one molecule thick; his comments about how those materials are, and are not, living up to their promised usefulness in electronics are included in the video of this interview: http://bit.ly/1ObOKgi.)