The Indian Botanists have news of a new publication on using rice to make lithium batteries. I thought I’d read this before, but what I’d read was research at Rice University using purpurin to store lithium ions as a charge. The Indian Botanists write on Korean research of rice, the grain. It can be used to make anodes, something that Rice, the university, was looking for.

The new rice anodes aren’t actually rice, they’re silicon processed from rice husks. As the Indian Botanists point out, that’s a use for what would be a waste product. It’s a reminder of how botany is reaching far beyond purely plant-based inquiry.