Today, we pay tribute to something that’s in almost every piece of portable technology today: the humble battery. Henry Schlesinger is the author of a new book called “The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution.” He explains how the battery went from animating a frog’s leg, back in the beginning, to powering your cell phone today.

Schlesinger also looks at why ? in the near future ? the need for battery materials may turn Bolivia into the next Saudi Arabia.