Aarati Asundi (00:12) Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Smart Tea Podcast where we talk about the lives of scientists and innovators who shaped the world. I'm Aarati. Jyoti Asundi (00:20) I'm Jyoti, Aarati's mom, had so much fun with Aarati when she invited me over on the Frances Kelsey podcast on the FDA and their stronghold... Aarati Asundi (00:34) Yeah, two episodes ago. Jyoti Asundi (00:34) ...that I'm actually being a squatter in her podcast right now. Aarati Asundi (00:39) Oh yeah, you've settled in really nicely. Jyoti Asundi (00:43) I'm an immigrant, so I know all about gaining permanent residence status. And I'm working on it. I'm using all the clout that I have with Aarati to convince her that I can do this more often. Aarati Asundi (00:55) Yes, but you're doing it very legally. You're filing all the proper paperwork. Jyoti Asundi (00:58) Yes, yes, yes, I am. I am. I have petitioned in the through the appropriate channels. Her dog is on my side. Aarati Asundi (01:06) My dog is your sponsor. Jyoti Asundi (01:08) Yeah, you might see me here more often in this space, so and I hope so. I hope you get to see me more often in this space. Aarati Asundi (01:15) Well, I'm very glad to see that you're settling in so nicely and that you have gained the confidence to be my co-host, which is really fun. So I'm really happy. Jyoti Asundi (01:25) Yes, I hope I can live up to your standards. They are very high. Aarati Asundi (01:30) My lofty expectations for being a podcast host. Jyoti Asundi (01:33) No no. You take this very seriously and I really appreciate that. I think you got that. Legitimately, When you take something on, you do it right. That is your attitude. And so I understand completely that this podcast is something that is very important to you. Bringing the lives of scientists, bringing the humanity into science again. Connecting people to scientists as real people. So yeah, so I am very much in favor of what you're doing and would love to support you. And if this works for you, I would love to be here more often. Aarati Asundi (02:10) Yes, definitely. Well, you know, I have, a lot of friends and things, but there's a very limited number of them that I feel like could actually do really well with a podcast and, you know, bring it the energy that it needs and things like that. So you are one of the few. So congratulations. Jyoti Asundi (02:28) Oh thank you. Thank you. Aarati Asundi (02:30) You're on the short list. Jyoti Asundi (02:32) I appreciate that. It's always great to be on the shortlist. Thank you. Aarati Asundi (02:35) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (02:36) So what are we doing today? Who are you going to talk to me about? Aarati Asundi (02:40) Yes, so how I got here is a little bit of a story, the person that I'm going to share with you. For those people who don't know, the podcast is really a hobby right now. For my day job, I have a science communications company and I make all sorts of ⁓ science media like animated videos and infographics and I do a little bit of writing also. And earlier this year, I met a guy in New York City named Jonathon Schaff, who is a brilliant copywriter. And he started a blog on clean energy called Green Juice. Jyoti Asundi (03:14) Green juice. Aarati Asundi (03:16) Yes, and I love that name, because it's all about sustainable energy. So the green transition and then juice as in energy and power. So that's what he's interested in. and he's a brilliant, very funny writer. He has a great sense of humor and he's very curious about all things related to how we can transition to a cleaner, more equitable world. And so he's writing this blog into different topics on this subject. And I've teamed up with him to mostly draw fun cartoons to intersperse into his blog that hopefully match his sense of humor, but also help kind of hammer home some of the science that he talks about. Jyoti Asundi (04:03) Nice mix, nice mix. Aarati Asundi (04:05) Yeah. But also, I do try to help him out with the science as much as I can, because sometimes the science behind some of these energy topics can get a little bit dense. And so I try to help provide some metaphors or some simplified explanations about certain topics for his readers. Jyoti Asundi (04:24) And your illustrations are also very helpful in that regard to kind of bring home the point in a very nice way. Aarati Asundi (04:32) Yes, I hope And wherever I can, I try to make it a little funny and humorous too. I've definitely drawn like Godzilla more times than I thought I would have to as a science illustrator. So, you know. Jyoti Asundi (04:45) That's fun. That sounds really good. Aarati Asundi (04:48) Yeah. And so recently he finished publishing a three-part series on batteries. And so when he was writing about that, he was asking me questions about how batteries work. ⁓ And I'm not really a battery expert, so I was doing my own Googling around to figure this out. Of course, I learned about batteries in physics classes and undergrad and high school and things like that, but I haven't actually looked at the topic for quite a while. Jyoti Asundi (05:17) Yes. Aarati Asundi (05:18) And so as I was Googling, trying to figure this out, course, my mind wanders over to this podcast and I'm like, I wonder who even invented batteries. Like where did this idea even come from? Jyoti Asundi (05:29) Yeah, where did it come from? Yes. Aarati Asundi (05:32) And so today that's what inspired this story. I'm going to be telling you the story of Alessandro Volta, Who is the scientist whowas obsessed with electricity and harnessing its power for human use. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (05:48) Nice! This sounds like a really fun topic. I'm so excited. Aarati Asundi (05:52) And if you haven't guessed already, his last name Volta is where we get the word Volt from. Like Voltage. Volt. Jyoti Asundi (05:59) Ah! He is so big that voltage and volt came from that. Aarati Asundi (06:04) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (06:05) Interesting that he is actually a unit. Just like I was just thinking when you just now said I was Googling this and I was Googling that and I was thinking to myself. Hmm. The word for researching the topic has now become Googling. It's become synonymous. So it sounds like the word volta has become so synonymous with the idea of energy that it's become a unit of energy Aarati Asundi (06:29) That's actually the same for a lot of electricity. Like I think amps came from Ampere and ⁓ Ohms, think, also, like the Ohm's law and everything. Jyoti Asundi (06:39) came from the person who, ⁓ nice, nice. So the original idea... Aarati Asundi (06:40) Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is a trend, a trend in energy. Jyoti Asundi (06:44) This is a good trend, I like it, nice. Aarati Asundi (06:47) Yes. Yes. OK. So I know you with the names, I'm going to say his full name one time. Jyoti Asundi (06:55) Ah no, ok what's his full name? Aarati Asundi (06:57) His full name is Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta. Jyoti Asundi (07:04) No. Whoa. All right. All right. I think every uncle, every grandpa, every remote relative has now been honored on his entire lineage. So, and hopefully they had that same thing going like we had in our previous where Pliny the Elder was named after be like these... Aarati Asundi (07:27) Yeah, Pliny the Elder. Jyoti Asundi (07:28) Pliny thank you. These three, four names have now covered his entire... you can map him genetically using these names. Aarati Asundi (07:36) Yes. And speaking of Pliny the Elder, Alessandro was also born in Como, Italy. But he was born February 18th, 1745. Which is the same place that Pliny the Elder was born just like 1700 years earlier, Jyoti Asundi (07:53) Okay, got it. Got it. Aarati Asundi (07:56) So Alessandro was from a noble family and he was the youngest of nine children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. Jyoti Asundi (08:05) Okay, nice big family there. Aarati Asundi (08:07) Yep. His father was Filippo and his mother was Donna Maddalena. For some reason, Alessandro did not start talking until he was nearly four years old. Jyoti Asundi (08:18) Oh wow! Aarati Asundi (08:19) And his family thought he might be a mute or have some sort of mental disability at first, because he's way behind the curve. Jyoti Asundi (08:27) But maybe he was much, much higher in wisdom... Aarati Asundi (08:31) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (08:32) ...where he's like, unless I have something really important to say, I will not bother. Aarati Asundi (08:38) Yeah, I'm not just going to babble nonsense. Jyoti Asundi (08:40) Yes. We have examples of that in our Indian culture. We have examples where a father has dismissed his only son as a mute and a probably a dull-witted boy. And then he comes in contact with a great sage who says, who are you? Or something like that. What's your name? Something like that. And he spouts eternal wisdom in response to the question instead of just saying I'm Jyoti or I'm Aarati this quote unquote dull witted boy just says something... Aarati Asundi (09:14) Yes. Let me tell you the meaning of life. Yes. Jyoti Asundi (09:15) ...extremely profound like I'm neither the earth nor the sky I am who I am and I'm the soul you yeah I think when parents have kids like that they need to take a step back and say maybe a genius is hidden in here. Aarati Asundi (09:30) Yeah. Yes, and I think that's exactly what his father eventually came to realize because of course Alessandro eventually did learn to speak fluently and it became quickly clear that he was actually one of the brightest, most intelligent kids in the school. And his father even said like, wow, we have a genius here and we didn't even know about it, Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (9:52) Yes still waters run deep. Aarati Asundi (9:55) Yes. His father died in 1752 when Alessandro is just seven years old. Jyoti Asundi (10:02) Oh that is so sad. Aarati Asundi (10:05) Yeah, and although the family was from nobility, Filippo, the father, hadn't been very responsible with money. He had been known to throw lavish feasts and parties. And so when he died, Alessandro's mother didn't have enough support to take care of all seven of her children alone. So Alessandro and two of his sisters were sent to live with their uncle who was an archdeacon at the Como Cathedral. Jyoti Asundi (10:32) Oh, okay. Aarati Asundi (10:33) Yeah. So Alessandro's family in general were devout Catholics and they had wanted him to go into either law or priesthood. And in fact, three of his older brothers became priests and two of his sisters became nuns. So strong family tendency. Jyoti Asundi (10:52) Extremely strong tendency towards the church and its order. Aarati Asundi (10:57) Yes. they even sent him to the Royal Seminary at Como to study. But by the time he was 16, Alessandro had fallen in love with chemistry and physics. Jyoti Asundi (11:09) Of course, yes. Aarati Asundi (11:10) Yes. In particular, he was fascinated by the work of an English chemist named Joseph Priestley, who was known for... Jyoti Asundi (11:18) Oh! Priestley! Aarati Asundi (11:19) Do you know this name? Jyoti Asundi (11:21) Is that the guy who did oxygen or am I wrong? Aarati Asundi (11:25) Yes, yes, you're correct. Good job, mom. Good job. Yes. Jyoti Asundi (11:26) Oh my goodness, my poor little brain cells are actually working. Oh my God. Oh my God. That's I'm impressed with myself. All right. Aarati Asundi (11:35) Yes, so he's known for inventing carbonated water, discovering that oxygen can form as a result of decomposing mercury oxide, and for his work on electricity. Jyoti Asundi (12:46) Nice. Aarati Asundi (11:47) Yes, so he's done a bunch of things. But the work that Alessandro was most interested in was the electricity part. So Joseph had written a history of electricity and had replicated experiments done by other scientists like Benjamin Franklin, John Canton, William Watson and Timothy Lane and included them all in his writings. So Alessandro is very taken with Joseph Priestley's writings on electricity. And he even wrote a poem about electricity. And I tried really, really hard to find a copy of the poem, but unfortunately, I couldn't, I think it was like a high school poem that he had written. Jyoti Asundi (12:27) It might also have been in Italian. Aarati Asundi (12:30) Probably. Jyoti Asundi (12:30) So don't beat yourself up too much. But he is he's mixing art and science just like somebody else I know. That is, that is very nice. Aarati Asundi (12:39) Well, I have no basis for this, but I kind of really like the idea of like one of his high school literature teachers giving him a homework assignment saying you have to write a poem. And he's like, I'm going to write it about electricity because I'm obsessed with that. And the teacher's like, that's not what I was going for. But OK. You know. Jyoti Asundi (12:57) But okay, I'll give you an A anyway because I can't figure what you have written out. So I'll just give you an A. All right. Aarati Asundi (13:04) Ok great. Obsessed. Great. So this is a really good place to kind of make a quick detour into what scientists know about electricity at the time. Jyoti Asundi (13:16) At this time frame. Aarati Asundi (13:17) At this time, yes. Jyoti Asundi (13:19) Yes, correct. Aarati Asundi (13:20) We know now like everything has an electric charge because all matter is made up of atoms which have positive protons in the nucleus and then a cloud of negative electrons spinning around in orbitals around the nucleus. And most matter exists in a neutral state because we have an equal amount of positive and negative charges. But since electrons are kind of whizzing around the nucleus, sometimes the electrons can break free from the atom and create a charge imbalance. Jyoti Asundi (13:54) Yes. Aarati Asundi (13:55) And so in the early 1600s, people didn't know this at all. They didn't know about atoms. They didn't know about electrons. They had observed certain electric phenomenons, most notably static electricity. Jyoti Asundi (14:09) Yeah, correct. Aarati Asundi (14:10) So like when you rub certain materials together, like two pieces of dry laundry tumbling around in the dryer, or you rub a balloon against your hair, charge in the materials gets separated, creating that charge imbalance. And so one material will build up a lot more negative charge than the other, and then they'll cling to each other because negative and positive attract. Jyoti Asundi (14:32) Yes. Because negative and positive like to... Yes. Aarati Asundi (14:37) And in fact, an English physician, Dr. William Gilbert, showed that if you held a magnet near a material that had been rubbed to create an electric charge, the magnet would move and point towards that material. Jyoti Asundi (14:51) Oh okay. Aarati Asundi (14:54) So he didn't really understand what was going on. But now we know that, you know, it's because if you rub the two materials against each other, you're creating one material to be more positive one material to be more negative. And then if you for example, the negative material up to the magnet, the positive end of the magnet will be attracted to the negative charges in that that's what was happening. Jyoti Asundi (15:19) Yes. Aarati Asundi (15:20) People, like I said though, like they didn't that. Jyoti Asundi (15:22) It was opposites attract, but then they didn't know this. Okay. Aarati Asundi (15:26) Yeah, they didn't know opposites attract. They didn't know about electrons. They didn't know they were building up separate charges. They just knew that rubbing certain materials together could create an attractive force. So they knew about static electricity. They had also observed that there are certain animals like eels that are able to shock fish and stun them. Jyoti Asundi (15:47) The electric eel, yes, Aarati Asundi (15:48) Yeah, so they knew about that. And of course they knew lightning exists. Jyoti Asundi (15:54) Of course. Aarati Asundi (15:55) But they have no idea that all these things are related to electricity. Jyoti Asundi (16:00) Yes. It's the electricity, is the foundation of all these different unquote diverse phenomenon because one is happening out there, lightning in the sky, whereas electric eels are shocking other fish down in the sea. So it's hard to connect these disparate phenomenon as having the same underlying mechanism. Aarati Asundi (16:27) Yeah, and lightning obviously is so much more scary and dangerous than like laundry static cling, you know. Jyoti Asundi (16:33) An electric eel or wool rubbing against something else or silk rubbing against something else and creating a static force there Yeah. Aarati Asundi (16:40) Yeah, so it's hard to kind of wrap your mind around the fact that these two things are related, they're the same thing. Jyoti Asundi (16:46) Yes. Aarati Asundi (16:47) So for the next 200 years or so, people were basically doing little experiments around electricity. So for example, they would be creating electric charge in one spot by rubbing materials together and then attaching those materials to a wire and then zapping people or objects with the other end of the wire. Jyoti Asundi (17:09) So that now they're understanding that the charge that you created by rubbing materials together is actually transmitted over via the metal wire and you are able to transmit it into somebody else. Aarati Asundi (17:25) Yes. Yeah, we're starting to get the idea that like electricity can maybe travel. And then in 1752 is when Benjamin Franklin performed his famous kite flying experiment, where he flew a kite during a lightning storm. And at one end of the kite was a conductive rod. And then at the other end of the kite was a wet hemp string that was tied to a key that was dangling down from the bottom of the kite. And Franklin held onto the kite using a dry silk string that would not conduct electricity as easily. Jyoti Asundi (18:04) Wow, what a brave man. Aarati Asundi (18:06) Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (18:07) He has a theory in his mind that the lightning in the cloud has electricity. Using the kite, can it down towards me. And you know, you know, I mean, when you look at lightning, it's pretty scary, but he's willing to take a chance and say, I have a theory and I'm pretty sure this is correct because I have done some small experiments in the lab to prove this. And so now I'm taking it to a massive scale where I'm going to prove that the electricity cannot really come through to me because I'm dry. But however, it will go to the key because it's going through a wet, conductable, is more conducting, Aarati Asundi (18:47) The key is wet and the wet material will conduce electricity. Jyoti Asundi (18:52) and now I can direct the electricity from the cloud, from the lightning to go where I want it to go and not go where I don't want it to go. They were brave people. Aarati Asundi (19:01) Very brave guy. Well, I mean, I do also get a lot of comments now on like social media on our YouTube channel and like TikTok channel, people comment and they're like, is this podcast basically just like a trial of errors throughout scientific history? Because this kind of experiment would never be condoned today. If you were trying to study electricity, there's so many protocols in place now where it's like, you cannot hold onto this kite string yourself. You need to like, you know... But back to Benjamin Franklin. So I think a lot of people have this kind of image in their head that this, you know, bolt of lightning strikes the kite and that travels down to the key. And then, Ben Franklin figures out that lightning is electricity. But actually, probably what really happened was a lot less sexy than that. Jyoti Asundi (19:52) Less dramatic. Less dramatic. Aarati Asundi (19:54) Yes, less dramatic than that. ⁓ He flew the kite around, and the conductive rod probably picked up just ambient electrical charges from the storm. Jyoti Asundi (20:04) Yeah, yeah, because the air is full of... Yeah, yeah, got it. Aarati Asundi (20:07) Yeah the air is full of static electricity during a storm like that. So it doesn't have to necessarily be lightning striking the kite. It is just, the kite is picking up this ambient static electricity from the storm and that travels down the hemp string to the key and when Benjamin tried to touch the key he felt a spark and so from that kind of you know experiment he was able to conclude that lightning was probably electricity. Jyoti Asundi (20:38) That actually makes a lot of sense. Because you're right, all the comics that depict Benjamin Franklin and his famous kite experiment do depict an actual lightning strike. But the force of that much power would have blown him into the sky and brought him back down or something. Aarati Asundi (20:59) Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (21:00) But this makes more sense scientifically. Very interesting though. Aarati Asundi (21:04) But the other equally important thing that he realized was that electric power was potentially something that people could harness. So because it had become stored in the key, then only when he touched it, he felt the electric shock. Jyoti Asundi (21:19) Nice. Yes. Aarati Asundi (21:20) And so he's like, maybe we can do this, you know, purposefully. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (21:23) The potential energy of the of the electricity in the key and then he released it by touching it. Ah nice, nice. Aarati Asundi (21:31) Yeah. So he started creating lightning rods on top of tall buildings that would not only protect the buildings from lightning strikes, but could also be used to conduct experiments on how we could potentially harness that electric power. Jyoti Asundi (21:47) Yes. Aarati Asundi (21:48) And so now back to Alessandro Volta, who is learning about all of these experiments through Joseph Priestley's writings on electricity. He becomes obsessed with electricity and he decides to ditch his formal education and not go to university in order to pursue his own experiments. Jyoti Asundi (22:08) Yes, but the formal education that he's ditching is the one in the seminary where he was kind of on the priesthood track. Aarati Asundi (22:18) Yes, but I think also, I bet he also realized that like he's obsessed with electricity and people know so little about it that it's not like he can go to university and learn about it, you know? Jyoti Asundi (22:25) Yeah. There is not much out there. He wants to figure out something brand new. Yes. Aarati Asundi (22:30) Yeah, there's not like a class. Yeah, he can't go and become an electrical engineer. It's not a thing, you know? Jyoti Asundi (22:34) Correct. Correct. There is not much known. That makes sense. Aarati Asundi (22:38) And so throughout the 1760s, he's largely following his own ideas and corresponding with the leading scientists in electricity, including Giambattista Beccaria, who was a professor of electrostatics at the University of Turin, and Jean-Antoine Nolette, who was a French physicist. Jyoti Asundi (23:01) Okay. Aarati Asundi (23:01) So these were apparently two very big names in the time. Alessandro was very outgoing. He was a very loud person and he was extremely driven to learn and work on electricity, so much so that he would sometimes forget to eat and change his clothes. Jyoti Asundi (23:19) Oh wow. Aarati Asundi (23:20) And so he had a servant who had to trick him into taking care of himself by asking him about his work. And then while Alessandro's like answering him with all this enthusiasm, the servant would be quietly handing him clothes that he would just kind of... Jyoti Asundi (23:35) Yes, which he is unconsciously changing his clothes. Aarati Asundi (23:38) Yeah, unconsciously changing his clothes. Jyoti Asundi (23:38) Yeah, because he's so passionately focused on explaining to this very intelligent servant who knows so much about his work that he's asking good questions that he's now like, whatever, I'm just changing my neck cloth and I'm changing my shirt. But this guy is really useful. This servant is really useful. He asks me such good questions. He makes me think in a different way actually that he's very useful. Aarati Asundi (24:04) Yeah. I thought that was funny. The servant is probably like, yeah, yeah, whatever. This guy's... Just eat! Jyoti Asundi (24:09) Yeah, whatever. I'll figure out.... Maybe maybe he just had to... "Can you explain more about that?" Maybe he just had to... Aarati Asundi (24:18) Yeah, that's all he had to do. Jyoti Asundi (24:18) he had to memorize a couple of good questions. Yeah. "Can you explain to me what you were explaining to the other...? I heard a little bit. Can you please explain that to me a little better?" And off goes Alessandro. OK. Aarati Asundi (24:28) Yes. Yes. There he goes. Jyoti Asundi (24:30) Nice, nice. Aarati Asundi (24:31) So in 1769, Alessandro published his first work, Devi Attractive Ignis Electrici, which translates to On the Attractive Force of Electric Fire. And that's in Latin. And in 1771, he published his second work, which I'm not going to try and pronounce in Latin, but it translates to A New and Very Simple Testing Apparatus. And while both of these works had the results of some experiments he did or described some machines that he had built, both of them were largely theoretical. So just his thoughts on what could be possible. In 1774, Alessandro accepted his first official job as a physics professor at the Royal School in Como. Jyoti Asundi (25:20) interesting. He gets he gets a job as a physics professor Aarati Asundi (25:25) Well, I think in those times, even like a high school teacher was called professor. Jyoti Asundi (25:32) Okay. Aarati Asundi (25:32) So I think he was teaching high school level. Jyoti Asundi (25:36) But he had ditched his formal education. But he had gained credentials through real life experiences. And that was equally valuable. Society did deem it to be worthy. Aarati Asundi (25:48) Yes, all of his correspondences with like all these really big electrostatic professors and you know people in the field, they were obviously impressed with him and he they're like, you know, you're doing good work. Keep it up. We love your ideas. Jyoti Asundi (26:04) He knows what he's talking about. He has gained credentials via these kinds of interactions, learning from the experts directly on a subject matter that he cares deeply about. Aarati Asundi (26:16) Yes. The same year in 1774, he released a device called the Electrophorus, which is basically a static electricity generator. Jyoti Asundi (26:27) Okay. Aarati Asundi (26:28) So importantly, he hadn't actually invented it, but he improved on it and made it so popular that many people thought he did invent In fact, another scientist, Johan Wilke, had come up with the device similar to the electrophorus about 12 years earlier. But basically what an electrophoresis is, is it has two plates. The bottom plate is made from resin or wax, and then you rub that with a cloth or a piece of fur to generate the different separation and electric charges. Jyoti Asundi (27:01) Yes. Aarati Asundi (27:02) And so now the resin plate, for example, will have a negative charge.And the cloth that you rubbed it with would have a positive charge. Then you take away the cloth and you place a metal plate on top of the resin plate. And so now all of the positive charges in that metal plate move downwards towards the negatively charged resin plate and all the negative charges in the metal plate move away from the resin plate. So they move upwards to the top. Jyoti Asundi (27:33) Okay. Aarati Asundi (27:34) So then if you touch top metal plate with your finger, it grounds the top plate, which means it drains away all of the separated negative charges. So now when you lift the metal plate off, that metal plate is containing only positive charges. Jyoti Asundi (27:55) Yes, got it. Aarati Asundi (28:14) And this positively charged metal plate can now be used for experiments. So you can discharge the positive charge in the top plate by holding it close to an electric conductor, like a piece of metal, and then you'll get a little spark of electricity. And the cool thing about this is that the resin plate at the bottom keeps its negative charge for a really long time. So once you discharge the top plate, you can just place it back on top of the resin plate, ground it with your finger again, and then the top plate is already ready to go for another experiment. Jyoti Asundi (28:31) That's nice. Aarati Asundi (28:32) So you can continually be making this static charge over and over again, which is really useful for scientists who are studying electricity to have device that will keep creating an electric charge. The next year in 1776, which is America's independence for score at home, Alessandro made another sort of random discovery. He was on a fishing trip at Lake Maggiore and he noticed that in the shallower, more marshy areas of the lake, little bubbles of gas were rising to the surface of the water. He correctly determined that this gas was caused by decomposing plant and animal matter in the lake, which we call methane today. And methane is highly flammable. By 1778, Alessandro had figured out how to isolate the methane gas and was using it to fire an electric pistol that he had created. Jyoti Asundi (29:31) Wow. Aarati Asundi (29:32) It sounds like a weapon. Like I was like, electric pistol, what? But actually, it's not a weapon. It was a tool that he was using to test the concentration of different gases in the air. So it didn't shoot bullets or like wasn't dangerous. It had a plunger that would shoot out when the methane inside the barrel of the pistol was ignited by an electric spark. And then depending on how far the plunger moved, he could measure how much methane or oxygen had been in the pistol barrel. Jyoti Asundi (30:05) Okay. Aarati Asundi (30:06) It's kind of like a random thing. Like, it's just like kind of a non sequitur, kind of. ⁓ But this, I thought it was important because it ended up that this laid the foundation for Charles's law, which is the formula for describing how gases expand with heat. And so like that led, of course, to all these like hot air balloons and like, you know, all these kinds of exploding devices and things like that. Jyoti Asundi (30:30) Nice! Yes, yes! Aarati Asundi (30:33) So I just thought it was like a fascinating little detour. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (30:33) nice that is fun! Yeah. yeah. Aarati Asundi (30:39) In 1778 Alessandro's work became so well known that he was offered a professorship, this time real professorship. Jyoti Asundi (30:45) For real in a college or a university. Aarati Asundi (30:46) Yeah. At the University of Pavia to teach physics. Pavia? Pavia. I don't know. Pavia. Jyoti Asundi (30:57) Somebody will have to correct us. Aarati Asundi (30:58) Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (31:00) Like, your podcast is good but your pronunciations need a lot of work. Aarati Asundi (31:04) is horrible. Jyoti Asundi (31:05) Yes, alright. Aarati Asundi (31:06) Around this time, started spending time abroad going to visit other physicists around Europe, including, of course, Joseph Priestley. He also spent time with another scientist with a famous last name, James Watt. Jyoti Asundi (31:20) James Watt! As in watts, yes, as the unit. Watts the unit. Aarati Asundi (31:24) Again, another unit guy. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (31:26) Yes, yes, yes, In the international system, it measures the rate at which the energy is used or generated. But he's going and visiting Joseph Priestley, whose work was like his inspiration to begin with. He read Priestley's work, which compiled the work of all other scientists. And now he's going to go meet Priestley and Watts and so all these great minds of that time who are all thinking about electricity and everybody is attacking it from different angles to try and understand it better and laying the foundation for the myriad uses of energy today. Aarati Asundi (32:10) Yes, yes. Jyoti Asundi (32:12) Amazing, amazing times. Aarati Asundi (32:12) And since there's no like electric conference, like international electricity conference doesn't exist. Jyoti Asundi (32:16) Yeah, that's right. So they go and travel to each other. Aarati Asundi (32:19) Yeah, they're all traveling to each other. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (32:31) You know, your ⁓ great grandfather was a well-known spectroscopist, ⁓ he laid foundations for spectroscopy in India in the early days around the Freedom Times and all that. Aarati Asundi (32:40) Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (32:41) And I've heard stories about him through family, although I never got to meet him, that the greatest spectroscopists of the time would come visit him at home and they would all sit around and nobody wanted to eat anything. They were all so engaged in discussion. They were always talking and saying these, you know, big, big concepts were floating around. And it was all fueled cups of tea. I can, so I can imagine this in their head, maybe pipes, you know, they had those pipes they used to have. Aarati Asundi (33:12) Yes, have some cigars. Have... Jyoti Asundi (33:13) I can see them sprawled around. Yeah, some cigars and pipes and they're all sprawled around in chairs and talking and talking and everybody else has gone to bed and they're still talking about some electric concept. Fun times. Aarati Asundi (33:28) Yeah. Very, very fun to think about. Jyoti Asundi (33:32) Yes, fun to think about. Aarati Asundi (33:33) Back at the University of Pavia, Alessandro's lectures became so popular that the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II ordered that a new larger auditorium needed to be built in order to... Jyoti Asundi (33:48) Wow! Accommodate! Accommodate all the interested parties. Aarati Asundi (33:53) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (33:54) Fantastic! Aarati Asundi (33:54) Yes, so he ordered that a new larger auditorium needed to be built. And he gave Alessandro funding to buy new state of the art equipment for the physics department. Jyoti Asundi (34:05) Wow, I really love hearing these stories. It's so funny. You know, we say we are progressing as human beings, as society. But all these stories were even the previous one where we did Frances Oldham Kelsey, we see these people in power, in political power, basically, who are working synergistically with the scientists to expand the scope of science, to expand the reach of science to the normal public. And that is why big things happened. Aarati Asundi (34:48) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (34:49) They say that when you have something very big that needs to happen. Something like... Aarati Asundi (34:54) Like the space race. Jyoti Asundi (34:56) Yes space race. That's when all people have to set their egos aside. They have to set their personal differences aside. And they have to actually look at what is best for the greater good of the community. It's not about what's in it for me. It's basically looking at what needs to be done to make this great thing happen so that we as a society reach a higher level. And that's what is happening I see here as well. Aarati Asundi (35:29) And it was a point of national pride also. It's like, we're the ones who figured out how to get to space first. We're the ones who averted the thalidomide crisis while everybody else was, you know... Jyoti Asundi (35:41) Yes, everybody else was succumbing. And here now again, this emperor, it's like he, he is a smart guy. Everybody needs to understand. Aarati Asundi (35:50) Yeah, he has a really good chance of figuring out...yeah. Jyoti Asundi (35:50) I don't understand him. Yeah, I don't. And just because I don't understand him, I'm not going to diss him and say, pooh, pooh, pah pah. He's talking nonsense. I'm not going to say that I am actually going to say, hey, this Alessandro guy knows what he's talking about. Many people are interested in what he's saying and also, he's able to communicate his very new concepts to a large audience in a very fun and engaging way. Let's make it happen because I can see that whatever he is understanding about electricity is expanding our ability to harness energy. And that is a very valuable tool for humankind. So let's make it happen. Build that larger auditorium so that everybody can hear him. And who knows which brain in the audience is now going to be the genius spark was engaged because of Alessandro's talk. Wow, I love it. Aarati Asundi (36:50) Yeah, let's go back to that. Jyoti Asundi (36:53) Because now what we are doing now is we are doing the crab thing where in order to make ourselves look better, we may pull other people down. But you your light by dimming somebody else's. Aarati Asundi (37:14) Hi everyone, Aarati here. I hope you're enjoying the podcast. If so, and you wish someone would tell your science story, I founded a science communications company called Sykom, that's S-Y-K-O-M, that can help. Sykom blends creativity with scientific accuracy to create all types of science, communications, content, including explainer videos, slide presentations, science, writing, and more. We work with academic researchers, tech companies, nonprofits, or really any scientists. To help simplify your science, check us out at sykommer.com. That's S-Y-K-O-M-M-E r.com. Back to the story. Aarati Asundi (37:58) So things are going really well for Alessandro and in 1794 he even gets married to lady from Como named Teresa Peregrini and together they have three boys, Zanino, Flaminio, and Luigi. Jyoti Asundi (38:17) No! I don't want to deal with names. Aarati Asundi (38:22) I know, but I mentioned it because his last son's name, Luigi, ties in with another scientist who's about to enter our story, a scientist named Luigi Galvani. Jyoti Asundi (38:36) Okay. Aarati Asundi (38:37) Luigi Galvani was an anatomy professor at the University of Bologna. But he had recently started dabbling in electricity because he needed to take his research in a new direction. And electricity is the new scientific frontier. And so he's like, OK, let's try this electricity something, even though he's an anatomy professor. Jyoti Asundi (39:00) Okay. Okay. Aarati Asundi (39:01) In 1780, Luigi was dissecting frog legs and was hanging them by their nerve endings on metal hooks... Jyoti Asundi (39:10) Oh my god, no. Aarati Asundi (39:11) ...made of brass or iron. And we don't know what exactly he was trying to do. It might just be that he was just dissecting them for an anatomy lesson. So, you know, we're not sure what the purpose of that was. But it just so happened that at the same time, one of his lab assistants was doing an experiment with static electricity. And Luigi said, quote, while one of those who was assisting me touched lightly and by chance the point of his scalpel to the internal nerves of the frog, suddenly all the muscles of its limbs were seen to be so contracted that they seem to have fallen into tonic convulsions. Jyoti Asundi (39:59) Huh. Aarati Asundi (40:00) So basically, this assistant was playing around with electricity. He accidentally touched the metal scalpel that he was holding to the nerve endings of the frog legs that Luigi had hung up. And those frog legs kind of contracted. They jumped like that. Jyoti Asundi (40:20) Yes, yes. Aarati Asundi (40:23) So this was wholly unexpected. Jyoti Asundi (40:27) Yes. Aarati Asundi (40:28) Luigi did a ton of different experiments after this with more frog legs, other amphibians, warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals, different materials. And he even hung the animal limbs by their nerves on a copper hook and attached them to an iron railing outside. And then he attached the lower part of the limb to a grounding wire and put this whole apparatus outside in the middle of a storm. Jyoti Asundi (40:54) Right, right. I think I'm seeing the connections. Yes. Aarati Asundi (40:59) And then he saw, like when lightning flashed, all the legs would twitch. Jyoti Asundi (41:05) Because they're actually connected directly to the nerves. So they're making that important connection that electric impulses are in the human body as well, our motor functions. Wow. Aarati Asundi (41:19) Yes. And so his previous observation when the assistant touched the scalpel to the nerve endings of the frog, he kind of expected that when lightning flashed, the legs would twitch like that made sense. But what was very surprising is that when he left this whole apparatus out on clear days when there was no lightning, no static electricity, and no electricity machine around, the legs would still twitch. Jyoti Asundi (41:50) Yeah. Aarati Asundi (41:51) So this led Luigi to theorize that animals, not just frogs, but all animals were electrically based and that our nerves send signals to our muscles through electrical impulses. Jyoti Asundi (42:05) Yes, yes Aarati Asundi (42:07) And it turns out he was right about that. Jyoti Asundi (42:10) He is right and we should be grateful for the correct interpretation, because if it was me, I'm just looking, I am an experimenter also. But if I had set up an experiment saying, ⁓ these frog legs should twitch when there is electricity in the air due to the lightning. And they do. And then do the same thing on a clear day, I would think my whole experiment was failed because I would think, "Well, ⁓ a clear day was supposed to be the negative control where nothing was supposed to happen, but it did anyway. So throw the whole thing out" and I would have thrown the baby out with the bath water. But he came to the conclusion, which shows how well he has understood this whole system. Aarati Asundi (43:00) Well, partially. So temper that a bit. So it turns out he was right to come to the conclusion that our nerves send signals to our muscles through electrical impulses and that we animals are electrically based in some way. Jyoti Asundi (43:16) Okay. Aarati Asundi (43:17) Where he kind of went off the rails a bit is he thought that because the frog used to be alive, its leg still had some memory or stored up electricity. And what he was doing, he thought, was he was actually being able to bring the frog leg back to life... Jyoti Asundi (43:37) Oh no. Okay, got Aarati Asundi (43:37) ...by hooking it up to these copper iron metals. Jyoti Asundi (43:38) Got it, got it. So he go off a bit. Aarati Asundi (43:43) Yeah he's thinking that a jolt of electricity is bringing this animal back to life. And guess what popular story that inspired. Jyoti Asundi (43:53) Wait, is that Frankenstein? Aarati Asundi (43:57) It is. Jyoti Asundi (44:00) Oh my goodness! So now it's... scientific works on electricity are actually inspiring art as well. Wonderful. What a lovely cross pollination happening there. Aarati Asundi (44:12) Yeah, I thought it was super interesting. So that's what Luigi's saying. Alessandro Volta, though, is not so sure about that. Luigi is essentially saying that the frog leg was generating what he called "animal electricity". And Alessandro had originally thought that Luigi was right and was maybe even a little bit jealous of this discovery. But after Alessandro repeated Luigi's experiments, he thought it was more likely that the different metals was causing an electric current and that the frog leg just happened to be a really good electric conductor. Jyoti Asundi (44:51) So what's happening is closer to what is happening with the electrophore. Aarati Asundi (44:57) Yeah, so well, so he thought it was more important, the fact that Luigi had used brass and copper and iron metals to like attach the frogs legs. And the those copper metals and iron metals were the one that was actually creating an electric potential or an electric difference. And the frogs leg just happened to be like this wet good material for conducting the electric current between the two metals. Jyoti Asundi (45:29) Yes, makes sense, okay. Aarati Asundi (45:31) And so now Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta are locked in this debate and actually the whole scientific community are taking sides in this very public argument that lasts for over a decade. People are fighting about this. Jyoti Asundi (45:47) Okay. Aarati Asundi (45:48) In 1800 Alessandro put the debate to rest once and for all by unveiling an invention that he is most known for called the voltaic pile, Jyoti Asundi (45:56) Voltic pile, okay. Aarati Asundi (45:58) Which is essentially a battery. And it could provide continuous electric current in a circuit without the use of any animal tissue. So that was the key point that Luigi was saying that this whole, that the electricity was happening because of electricity stored in the leg when the animal was alive. And that's what was creating the electricity and he was bringing that back. And now Volta, Alessandro Volta is like, look, I have managed to create a continuous electric circuit without using any animal tissue whatsoever. So it can't be that you've brought the animal tissue back to life. Like, it's not stored up. There's no electric energy stored up in a dead limb. That's what... yeah. Jyoti Asundi (46:46) Got it. Okay. Aarati Asundi (46:47) So what Alessandro had done was he first realized that it wasn't only dead, frog legs that twitched when it hooked up to metals. When he touched two different metals, like silver and zinc, to a live frog, the live frog twitched as well. Jyoti Asundi (47:09) Okay. Aarati Asundi (47:10) So it's not just dead animal tissue. So then this is where we get into what are scientists and their non-existent safety protocols. So he then touched these two metals, the silver and the zinc, to his own tongue. Jyoti Asundi (47:27) Tongue! Aarati Asundi (47:28) Yeah. And he felt a tingle happening in his tongue. Jyoti Asundi (47:32) Okay. Aarati Asundi (47:33) But it didn't work if he attached the zinc metal and the silver metal to wires and then touched only the wires to his tongue. Then he didn't feel anything. So from this, he deduced that maybe the silver and the zinc metals had to be wet in order to create an electric current. So he dunked them in water, then now the two metals are in like little cups of water and they're attached to wires and he puts the wires on his tongue and he feels the tingle again. Jyoti Asundi (48:10) Okay. Aarati Asundi (48:11) And the more cups of water and zinc and silver that he added to the circuit, the stronger the tingling sensation got. Jyoti Asundi (48:19) Yes. Aarati Asundi (48:20) And then if instead of just plain water, if he used salt water or brine, it made the tingle even stronger. Jyoti Asundi (48:27) Yes. Got it. Aarati Asundi (48:28) So basically, his voltaic pile was just a stack of pairs of silver and zinc disks with pieces of cardboard soaked in salt water in between each pair of disks. So you have silver disk, zinc disk, wet cardboard, silver disk, zinc disk, wet cardboard, so on and so on. Jyoti Asundi (48:52) Continuous sandwiches, yes, with the salted cardboard piece in between as the actual meat in between and it's all a big pile. Aarati Asundi (49:01) Yeah, and you create a pile. And this pile of disks could generate a constant stream of energy or electricity without any rubbing, so it's not static electricity. And there's no external power, so it's not getting hit by a bolt of lightning or anything. So how does that work? Basically, what's happening is the zinc disks in Alessandro's voltaic pile are acting like an anode. So the zinc reacts with the salt water and produces electrons, which have a negative charge. And then the electrons flow through a wire circuit all the way around to the silver disk, which is the cathode, which is more positively charged. And this flow of electrons is generating a weak electric current. Jyoti Asundi (49:54) Correct, is, this flow of electrons is what an electric current is. Aarati Asundi (49:59) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (50:00) So this is, this voltaic pile is the precursor to a battery cell then. Aarati Asundi (50:08) Yes, it is the first, basically the first battery. Jyoti Asundi (50:10) Yes, it is the first battery. Aarati Asundi (50:12) It is generating electricity on its own. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (50:17) Wow, this is fantastic. Aarati Asundi (50:21) So depending on which metals you use and which acids or bases you use, you can change the electric potential between the anode and cathode, which can affect the strength of the electric current. Jyoti Asundi (50:33) Yes, yes, make it faster, slower, more, less, yes. Aarati Asundi (50:37) Yes. So he was using zinc and silver. And today, in modern alkaline batteries, we still use zinc as the anode. But they use manganese oxide as the cathode. And they use potassium hydroxide instead of brine or seawater to create the electrons. And so it's much stronger reactions that are happening. Jyoti Asundi (50:59) Yes. Wow, so it was so close. So that's the first step and then they switch things out and it's the same concept because you have potassium hydroxide instead of salt and then you silver of course is extremely expensive. You don't want to have a regular simple little alkaline battery with that. So you look, you know.... Aarati Asundi (51:20) Switch it out with copper or you switch it out with...yeah. Jyoti Asundi (51:23) Yeah, you can sit there and substitute somebody, you know, who has the patience can sit it out, substitute Aarati Asundi (51:27) Yeah, try different metals. Jyoti Asundi (51:28) and find some...try different metals. And now you have the alkaline battery of today Aarati Asundi (51:34) Yeah. That's the basic foundation for batteries today. Jyoti Asundi (51:39) Fantastic. Aarati Asundi (51:39) And so you can play with these different metals and acids and bases. And you can change the electric potential between the two metals. And this difference in electric potential is measured in volts named after Alessandro Volta. So higher the voltage of a battery, the higher the force on the electrons to get pushed through the circuit. using these different metals. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jyoti Asundi (52:07) So you can buy a three volt battery or a nine volt battery because they have set up the differential between the two metal ⁓ electrodes basically, and between whatever material is actually doing the conducting, salt water, KOH, whatever potassium hydroxide, whatever it is, so that how fast do these electrons move? How much is generated? And that determines what the voltage it can be of the battery. Lovely. Nice. Aarati Asundi (52:38) Yeah, basically. Yeah. And quick side note, today we also have rechargeable lithium ion batteries... Jyoti Asundi (52:47) Yes! Aarati Asundi (52:48) ...which use graphite and metal oxide for the anode and cathode. And between them is a lithium salt. And in this case, I just thought it was interesting because in this case, the graphite and the metal oxide can actually swap whether they are acting as the anode or cathode based on whether the battery is being discharged or whether it's being charged. Jyoti Asundi (53:11) Oh! That is why rechargeable. So they take on different roles depending on what's happening with it. And that has become the foundation of so many important uses of the battery today. The entire electric vehicle industry is based on these lithium batteries. Aarati Asundi (53:34) Yeah. All these energy storage, like from solar, from wind, for creating these electric vehicles that run on battery power. All our laptops, our phones, like everything, everything is based on this. Yes. Jyoti Asundi (53:47) Everything is based on that. Everything is based on the initial discovery by Volta. These days, people are literally married to their cell phones or their computers. Aarati Asundi (53:59) I know I am. Jyoti Asundi (54:00) There were times in the old days, my mom still remembers those good old days where people actually eat dinner together and they actually talk to each other. But 50 % of the families, it's like you are just married so much to your cell phone or to your computer that even at the dinner table, you're like, quickly, I'm just going to quickly check my messages. Your life is incomplete without that cell phone. Aarati Asundi (54:25) Dad has done that a couple of times. Dad has like texted me something and I'm like, I am literally in the next room. Like you could just come and tell me. But that's... Jyoti Asundi (54:37) ⁓ Your dad is funny that way. But where I was going with it was that our lives today, I mean we do consciously try to dissociate from our cell phones or from our computers and say, OK, no, we are going to have a little retreat or a meditation time, or we're going for a walk. But that's a conscious effort to de-plug ourselves from all these gadgets that we are practically attached to at this point. I cannot imagine life anymore without the cell phone or the computer. How would I work? Aarati Asundi (55:17) Yeah, how would you function? Jyoti Asundi (54:18) How would I function without these two gadgets? I need it for just knowing, what am I supposed to be doing now? Do I have an appointment with the doctor? Am I supposed to buy a gift for somebody's kid whose birthday party I have to go to? Everything is on this. Aarati Asundi (55:32) Oh yeah, I can't remember anyone's birthday without a little notification. Jyoti Asundi (55:36) Yeah, Volta is the one who set the foundation for this life that is completely based on the concept of stored energy as in batteries. Aarati Asundi (55:48) Yeah, batteries that are able to provide this kind of constant electric current. Jyoti Asundi (55:52) That is amazing. America is gaining independence and we are all developing dependence on cell phones and computers. We have become slaves. We got the golden shackles. Aarati Asundi (56:04) And we love our golden shackles. Jyoti Asundi (56:06) We love our golden shackles. We wouldn't know what to do without our golden shackles. Aarati Asundi (56:10) Because, in 2019, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the scientists who made the first commercially available lithium ion battery. So.. Jyoti Asundi (56:21) Yeah, we love them. We honor them. We have great respect for them. We love our golden shackles. Aarati Asundi (56:27) Yes thank you thank you. So that's what's happening today. Let's go back to Volta's time. Luigi Galvani died in December 1798, about one year before Alessandro Volta published his Voltaic Pile. And this was perhaps fortunate because Luigi had become very depressed at the end of his life because when the French occupied Northern Italy at this time under Napoleon's command, he refused to swear loyalty and so he was stripped of his jobs and titles. And so being proved wrong on a public stage about animal electricity probably wouldn't have done nothing to help him. Jyoti Asundi (57:11) Would have crushed him. Yeah, it would have killed him if he had not died already. ⁓ Aarati Asundi (57:17) Exactly. So kind of a blessing in disguise, I guess, that he was not proven wrong at the end of his life when he was already in such a depressed state. Jyoti Asundi (57:28) Yes. Aarati Asundi (57:29) The Voltaic Pile, however, became an instant sensation with many other scientists now able to use it to conduct even more experiments on electricity because now they had a way to create a steady flow of electricity. Jyoti Asundi (57:42) You created a ready source of energy. Aarati Asundi (57:44) Yeah, and you're no longer relying on like creating static charge and then discharging it and then creating a static charge again and discharging it. Now you can just have this really constant steady flow of electricity and they were able to conduct experiments in electromagnetism, study electrochemical reactions, and they were able to start using it to power devices like telegraphs. Jyoti Asundi (58:09) Nice, nice. Wow. Aarati Asundi (58:12) In 1809, he became an associated member of the Royal Institute of Netherlands. Even Napoleon was so impressed that in 1810, he named Alessandro a count. Jyoti Asundi (58:24) Oh Wow, wow, is definitely impressive because somebody who is like the French emperor is acknowledging ⁓ Italian scientist who has kind of, he has conquered, has conquered Italy at this point under the Napoleonic era and the French emperor is honoring an Italian guy with the highest possible honor. Aarati Asundi (58:53) Yes. And I found it also kind of like it's such an interesting, it's such an interesting difference that Luigi refused to bend the knee to Napoleon and was therefore stripped of all his titles and all his honors. And instead, Alessandro Volta is like, yeah, I'll take it. I'll become a count. Sure. You know. Jyoti Asundi (59:12) Yeah, an interesting difference that is true. There is a bit of patriotism there also. But also, you can't say he was unpatriotic for accepting it. It is more like my invention is that good. It should be recognized. And I'm glad you're recognizing which is good for him, I think. Aarati Asundi (59:36) Yes, definitely. Thanks to his success, Alessandro became a rich man. He continued teaching physics until 1819 when he retired to Como, Italy. And he lived there peacefully for the rest of his days until he quietly died on March 5, 1827. And he was buried near his estate in Como. Since then, in 1899, a memorial called the Tempio Voltanio was built on the shores of Lake Como. It contains a museum that has a bunch of Alessandro's original instruments and personal items. The Aula Volta, which is the large auditorium at the University of Pavia that was built to... Jyoti Asundi (1:00:22) by the Emperor there. Yeah? Aarati Asundi (1:00:23) accommodate his large lectures. That still exists and they also have a collection of his scientific instruments at the university's history museum. Jyoti Asundi (1:00:33) Yes. Aarati Asundi (1:00:34) From 1990 to 1997, his portrait was on the Italian 10,000 lira note, along with the sketch of his Voltaic pile. Jyoti Asundi (1:00:45) Okay, okay, they really honored him in every way that they could. They remember him and they honor him. nice, that is nice. Aarati Asundi (1:00:51) Yes, and I think maybe the highest honor haha. In 2019, an electric eel species, Electrophorus volti, was named after him and is described as producing the strongest bioelectric shock in nature, generating up to 860 volts. Isn't that crazy? Jyoti Asundi (1:01:14) Oh my Goodness! Wow! He got an eel named after him. Aarati Asundi (1:01:19) Yes. Jyoti Asundi (1:01:20) That is honor indeed. Aarati Asundi (1:01:22) Yeah, bringing back those eels into this story. Jyoti Asundi (1:01:23) Bringing back those eels. Aarati Asundi (1:01:26) That's the story of Alessandra Volta. Jyoti Asundi (1:01:29) It is such a fantastic story and it is amazing the more you think about it the more you recognize the importance of this voltaic pile or battery as it is called today. They are the reason that we are slowly being able to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels. If ever human beings are going to make it as a species and survive another 200 years, it will be if we are able to get away from our complete dependence on fossil fuels and our ability to harness these inexhaustible supplies of energy like wind and the solar energy and store them and then use them when we want to. That is going to be so important for us as a species actually, because that is what is going to allow us to kind of not have these extreme in the climate and have horrible, horrible climate changes happening all the time. So. Aarati Asundi (1:02:40) Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things. Generating energy is one of the biggest carbon emitters because one of the key ways we generate energy is by burning fossil fuels. And so if we can transition to clean energy, renewable energy like solar, wind... Jyoti Asundi (1:02:59) yeah, and batteries are really the foundation of that, making better batteries, bigger batteries, more compact batteries that have more power. That's what the world is going towards. And he set it all up for us. So many, so many years ago, while America was gaining independence, he was setting us up for independence from fossil fuels. Aarati Asundi (1:03:22) Yes, that's a nice way to put it. So thanks again to Jonathon Schaff and the Green Juice Blog for inspiring this episode. And I highly recommend reading it. Like I said, he's really a funny writer very smart and very curious also. He does his due diligence. So I would highly recommend if you want to learn more about green energy and transitioning, go check out his blog, I'll link it on the website and it on social media wherever I can so you can go check it out. Jyoti Asundi (1:03:56) Sounds really fantastic. Thank you. This was fun. Aarati Asundi (1:04:00) Thanks for listening. If you have a suggestion for a story we should cover or thoughts you want to share about an episode, reach out to us at smartteapodcast.com. You can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Blue Sky @smartteapodcast and listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. And leave us a rating or comment. It helps us grow. New episodes are released every other Wednesday. See you next time.