People illustrations by Storyset
Hecht, J. (2023). Robots need better batteries. Nature.
In the above article, we learn that small robots use batteries made of materials like lithium and cobalt. The article talks a little bit about the chemistry and engineering behind these batteries too. What can we learn about the element cobalt from other science disciplines?
With your group, look at your assigned website (group assignments in the left sidebar) and use that site to try to find items about the element "cobalt." As you search, try to answer the questions below:
- What website is this? Is it associated with any particular science organization(s)?
- Who wrote the article(s) you are finding? Are they scientists, journalists, something else? If you could ask the author one follow-up question about this piece, what would it be?
- Reading through an item (or two) on cobalt, what can you learn about this element? Pick one thing you learned to share with the class.
- Does the article point to any kind of evidence, like a research paper or a report? Why do you think this might be newsworthy?