Weird science has a pleasing way of turning up in real life. The lumpen car battery, with its innards of lead and sulphuric acid, works thanks to the effects of relativity, which deliver five-sixths of its charge, according to research published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.

Quantum mechanics, the as-yet irreconcilable flipside of relativity, promises to make both the old-style car battery and internal combustion engine obsolete. Quantum batteries in development could theoretically charge at lightning speed, solving a significant obstacle to widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

Quantum batteries use light in the form of a laser, or a maser (a laser’s microwave analogue) or even sunlight to increase the electric energy of a molecule for later release. The quantum phenomenon of entanglement allows many molecules to be energised at once. The bigger the quantum battery, the faster it charges.