Less fire, more power: Without the needlelike growths that can short out cells, lithium-ion batteries will be safer

LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES HAVE MADE HEADLINES for the wrong reason: as a fire hazard. Just this past May, three apparent battery fires in Tesla cars were reported in the United States and Switzerland. In the United States alone, a fire in a lithium-ion battery grounds a flight every 10 days on average, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. And the same problem afflicts electronic cigarettes, which have been blowing up in people's faces sporadically.