It Pays to Be a Cheapskate
As Steve Lipka describes the cool ways people on the other side of the globe are using capacitors, tiny battery-like devices that give quick bursts of energy, my first thought is “same old story. The U.S. lags behind the rest of the world again.” He tells me predictably that from camera phones to BMWs to cargo cranes, Europe and Asia lead the world in using capacitors to improve technology and save energy.
But a $1.2 million investment from global energy company E.ON is bolstering Lipka's research to make bargain-basement capacitors. Using cheap sources of carbon (like rayon, coal byproducts and plastic bottles), Lipka is building the next generation of capacitors for an array of applications, including storing energy from the sun and wind.
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With more than 7,000 interviews ranging from Adolph Rupp to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, UK's Louie B. Nunn Center has one of the nation's largest collections of oral histories.
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