Now you would think it would be counter-intuitive that poking millions of minuscule holes in a lithium-ion battery would result in more power. Boy, if I knew that were the case I'd take a shotgun to my iPhone 4S battery right now. Poor iPhone 4S battery life solved!

Scientists at Northwestern University figured out a way to stuff more of the ions in and to speed up their movement by altering the materials used to manufacture a battery. The result is you can recharge ten times faster and hold a charge ten times larger than current battery technology. Their techniques would allow a mobile battery to go from "flat" to fully charged in 15 minutes and last a week before needing a recharge.

Wow, sounds great, so what's the catch?

Well, the recharging and power gains fall off sharply after a battery has been charged 150 times. However, they claim even after 150 charges it's still more effective than today's lithium-ion batteries. Alas, they say it'll be 5 years before these Swiss cheese batteries are available. Personally, I'm hoping by then we've discovered cold fusion power or some other high energy / low-cost power source so we can get off the expensive power grid.