There are interesting things in better battery tech that are still possible and have been demonstrated in a lab. For example, batteries that age dramatically slower than existing batteries, or solid state batteries that charge dramatically faster (1/10th the time of current lithium ion) than existing tech. I don’t think advancements like that are miracles.
It's all down to the expectations people have.
The thing is, we see reports of these scientific papers of promising new technology and think "cool, can't wait to get my hands on that", but what people don't realize is how ridiculously long it takes to actually go from "science has shown its possible" to an actual developed product that is reliable, manufacturable etc. The science bit is usually the comparatively easy part. Developing a product is really expensive, takes time and is challenging.
As an example, I remember talking to a friend of mine when I was 13 in 1993 about this awesome new technology that is coming down the pike. It's going to be like RAM, but non-volatile, so it can actually store data without power. It is absolutely going to revolutionize storage and make it so much faster. It has this strange name though, "Flash RAM".
16 to 17 years later I was able to buy my first SSD.
Battery tech improvements are coming. You just have to be patient.
Science studies may prove something is possible, but most of these papers go nowhere, as the concept is something that could never work outside of the controlled settings in a lab. In other cases, the studies can't be replicated (and no one wants to fund or conduct replication studies anymore, because all the glory is in the first discovery)
Maybe 10% of published papers are actually something that is actionable as a product. Now you have to convince someone to actually spend the time and money to develop it. Not all of them will get picked up. Of those that do, a good chunk will never make it to market, either because they wind up being too expensive, or they are just not reliable enough in the real world, etc. etc. The projects get shut down, shelved and the project never launches. In some cases the tech may even still be useful, but now it is tied up in patents and red tape and can't be developed by someone else, at least not easily.
A few filter through to wind up being real products, 20 years and millions (or in some cases billions) of dollars of investment in development and manufacturing work later.
Part of this is the news media's fault. Thy report on science topics they don't understand, and make it seem like these things will be viable products right around the corner, when most never will be.
