Battery makers win Nobel Chemistry Prize

The men behind the lithium-ion batteries we use in everything from phones to cars to pacemakers have won the Nobel Chemistry prize for their work.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) ROYAL SWEDISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SECRETARY GENERAL, GORAN K. HANSSON, SAYING:

"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has today decided to award the 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry jointly to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino."

Their rechargeable battery laid the foundation of wireless electronics like mobile phones and laptops.

It's also used in electric cars, and for storing energy from renewable sources, making a fossil-free world possible.

British scientist Stanley Whittingham made the world's first functioning lithium battery in the 1970s, then the following decade America's John Goodenough doubled its power.

Japan's Akira Yoshino then removed any pure lithium from the battery, making it much safer.

Speaking on the phone at today's press conference, he said curiosity was his main driving force.

They've been awarded nearly nine million dollars for their discoveries.

It's not the first science prize John Goodenough has won, but at 97 he's now the older winner in Nobel Prize history.