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  They are called button cells, coin cells or watch batteries. By any names, this tiny round batteries pose a choking danger to kids. And if a kid succeeds in swallowing a button cell, the battery may shortcircut in a moist suffergea environment, burning the tissue. A few children wind up in the emergency room each year after swalowing a button battery. But a team of Harvard MIT researchers that include prolific¹ inventor Robert Lancer think they have a partial solution, a protective coating. The scientists covered the battery with a material, technically² a quatine composite, in which micorparticles of conductive metal are suspended in a insulating layer. Under most circumstances, including inside a child, the layers are non-conductive, but  when the materials are subjected to high pressure, the microparticles are squized together enough to carry currents. One such pressurized environment is the typical 

battery compartment³ in a small device. You often have to force the battery into place. So the same battery that remains⁴ inlert when swallowed works just fine when it's jammed into its slot in a hearing aid. The waterproof⁵ design would prevent batteries from corrosion⁶ and high humidity. The research is in the proceedings⁷ of the Natural Academy of Sciences. Tests with  pigs found the coated battery to be gentle on a porsigned surfugus. Next step figure out a way to keep the kids from putting  batteries into their mouth in the first place. Can a quantin  composite  be made to taste terrible? Thanks for the minute. This is Scientists American sixty seconds.

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