Batteries

S13, E32: Batteries. Mixtures of metals and caustic chemicals that make our tech, tools and toys surge with energy. Modern Marvels visits the world's most powerful battery in Fairbanks, Alaska - 13,760 hulking cells humming with 5,000 volts (Don't touch it!) ready to help the city survive power outages. Then it's off to Energizer's mammoth North Carolina production facility to see how machines churn out one million D-cells every day. 6,831 batteries are packed in the sleek Tesla Roadster, a new electric sports car that can speed from 0 to 60 in just 4 seconds. Let's take a ride. And your own car battery? We'll show you the ingredients that manufacturers pour into it - from sulfuric acid to a substance aptly called "mud". And we don't forget nanobatteries - those microscopic marvels that may some day power nanorobots. That Fantastic Voyage of a submarine in the human blood stream is suddenly a plausible reality.