Few people think much about the battery in their smart phones, tablet, media player or laptop until automated warnings and glowing red icons let them know they’ve burned a little too much of the midnight oil.

New technologies, however, are making the nightly recharging ritual a rare event. And a global race is underway to find the great white whale of 21st century energy: the elusive next-generation super battery.

The impact of such radically improved energy storage does not end at consumer convenience. A super battery could radically reorient global geopolitics, experts say, giving an enormous advantage to whichever company – or country – develops the cheapest, most efficient and most sustainable way to store electricity.

Such predictions however, have not dampened an emerging Western resolve to build a better battery that resists the type of physical degradation that affects most currently on the market.

According to Chamberlain, several well-heeled companies have come knocking at Argonne’s door in the past few years, looking for a way into the battery world’s exclusive race to the top. With so much interest materializing so quickly, many investment banking groups are now wondering if they’ve missed the most important boat of the decade. Chamberlain and LeVine however, are not so fatalistic.