Both Boeing and Tesla use batteries fueled by lithium cobalt oxide, which is among the most energy-dense and flammable chemistries of lithium-ion batteries on the market.

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Her battery-producing viruses cover their entire 880 nanometer-lengths with tiny balls of cobalt oxide and gold, leaving her with nanowires--six nanometers in diameter and 880 nanometers long.

FORBES: Breakthroughs

The result is a stamp of the posts that under a microscope looks like a sheet of bubble wrap, each covered with layers of electrolyte and the cobalt oxide anode.

FORBES: Breakthroughs

She exposes them to the chemical she is interested in, cobalt oxide and gold in the case of her battery work, and selects those viruses that produce proteins with an affinity for the chemical.

FORBES: Breakthroughs