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Researchers are working on tech that could give you a two-minute heads up if a lithium ion battery is about to blow.

You could potentially build this technology into smoke detectors that are on the ceiling,

but you could also put them potentially in a product to also provide detection.

It's Friday, December 6th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm SciFri producer Deep Bütterschmidt.

Lithium ion batteries power so many devices in our lives,

and companies like them because they can store a lot of energy in a small package. Unfortunately,

that means when those batteries are damaged, all that energy can lead to explosions and fires. But

researchers have trained AI algorithms to predict when a lithium ion battery is about to explode.

Thanks to a key sound, it gives off two minutes before going off.

We'll get to that story in a bit, but first, here's Ira Flato with the top news and science this

week.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments that could change the food

and drug administration's power to regulate nicotine-based vapes.

It revolves around a case where the FDA denied applications of two vape companies that sell

flavored liquids in their products, citing that the liquids presented a danger in addicting

youth to nicotine.

But a lower court rejected that denial, saying the agency was inconsistent in its

approval process. Well, here to read the tea leaves of this case and enlighten us with the science

news of the week is Rachel Feldman, host of the popular science broadcast, the weirdest thing I

learned this week, and Scientific Americans podcast Science

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