According to an article in the journal Science, material scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in association with researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, have managed to train a tiny virus, called M13, to build nano-scaled iron phosphate electrodes that make lithium batteries far more efficient and powerful, and environmentally friendlier than the kind currently available.

The genetically engineered M13 are ‘trained’ to coat themselves with iron phosphate and then fasten on to carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conductive material, delivering more ‘juice’ by speeding up the movement of ions. According to the scientists the battery has the same capacity and power performance as leading state-of-the-art commercial batteries. Possible applications for the battery include longer life mp3 player, laptop and cell phone batteries as well as batteries for hybrid cars.