Lithium gets most of the attention when it comes to battery technology, but its downstairs neighbor on the periodic table could eventually displace it.

Stable salt: Sodium-ion batteries are garnering attention as technological advancements suggest that, compared to lithium-ion batteries, they could achieve similar performance in a wider range of applications, all without the supply chain headaches.

• Rising demand for batteries has caused the price of lithium to skyrocket—it’s up nearly 450% compared with last year, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Sodium, meanwhile, “has almost unlimited supply,” Jason Zhang, a pioneer in battery research and lead author of a recent DOE lab report on a sodium-battery breakthrough, told us.

Chinese battery giant CATL could begin making sodium-ion batteries as soon as next year, and a number of startups are also working on increasing manufacturing capacity for sodium-ion production.

• UK-based Faradion has been focused on sodium batteries since 2011.
• HiNa Battery Technology in China, Tiamat in France, Altris AB in Sweden, and Natron Energy in the US are all commercializing sodium-ion tech as well.

Big picture: Like any battery chemistry, sodium-ion comes with its own tradeoffs. And although some companies are exploring near-term commercialization, Zhang said the technology will need several years to both reach maturity and for production to scale.

Keep reading about the potential battery of the future.—GD

DeepMind’s AlphaFold tool has mapped out the structures of nearly every protein on Earth—or, at least, the ones known to scientists.

And it’s making that data available to the scientific community for free.

The power of proteins

The news comes nearly two years after the Google-owned AI lab first introduced AlphaFold, a neural network that uses a protein’s amino-acid sequence to predict its shape.

The tool sparked a breakthrough in a 50-year-old biological mystery, since predicting a protein’s shape essentially enables researchers to predict its function. That’s big news for disease research and drug discovery, as research suggests incorrect protein folding could be the cause of degenerative disease.

What’s new: DeepMind’s update means that 200+ million protein structures are now available to scientists on the AlphaFold database, which is hosted on Google Cloud.

That’s a 200x increase from a year ago, when the database had just ~1 million protein structures—and since then, 500,000 researchers from 190 countries have used the data to do things like help break down plastic waste and advance research on neglected diseases.

Big picture: Proteins are the building blocks of all living things—humans, animals, and other organisms, including bacteria and viruses. The new data could help researchers make progress in areas like disease research, sustainability, and food insecurity, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said at a press briefing. It covers, essentially, “the entire protein universe,” he said.

Read this story on-site.—HF

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

Two words: servant leader. Transportation is a leading barrier to care in the US, and my role is to support our brilliant, diverse-led team to create scalable impact—with the vision of removing transportation as a barrier to wellness.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about?

Amazon Connect, and here’s why: tech doesn’t solve all problems. At Roundtrip, we work with the vulnerable and elderly, many of whom don’t have access to unlimited data plans or have a barrier to using apps. We have to be able to meet people where we are, and many still want to make calls to get answers. I’m really excited by Amazon Connect’s omnichannel support that allows for folks to still call for their needs while being navigated swiftly and easily without hold times. Prices can be kept low, which further reduces the barriers to access.

What’s the best piece of tech-related media you’ve read/watched/listened to?

Big fan of Organizational Physics. As the CEO of a tech company, I want to follow the data to embrace best practices in scaling a SaaS company. I have yet to see any content that replicates the level of detail.

What do you think about when you’re not thinking about tech?

I’ll answer indirectly: To turn my mind off from tech, I cook. I believe it’s a different channel of the brain! The ability to step away is an important reset, and a critical acumen for any balanced leader.

Stat: In 2021, 90% of climate-tech funding went to just three sectors: transportation, energy, and food. But in the first half of this year, they accounted for about 70%, per CTVC analysis.

Quote: “These things aren’t in place, and might not be for more than a decade.”—Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, to E&E News re: stipulations about the domestic battery supply chain in the new climate bill

Read: A $100 human-genome sequence is coming. Are we ready?

A lot happens every week. Too much, even.

So...How well do you remember last week in Emerging Tech? Play this week’s trivia and find out.

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Space investments fell back to earth in Q2
• From infant poop to trance music, here’s a play-by-play of a CRISPR experiment
• Here’s how the climate tech funding environment is shifting amid a broader VC pullback