If you’ve ever gone to your sister’s summer garden party only to be rendered completely sodden by a nephew wielding a massive water cannon, you can probably thank Lonnie Johnson. He made his fortune by inventing the Super Soaker. Fortunately, he’s not stopping with sopping uncles; he’s now tackling clean energy with his Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter (JTEC), something my wingnut nephew will probably never understand. The device turns low-temp heat into electricity so we all don’t have to rely so much on fossil fuels. He’s also advancing battery technology through Johnson Energy Storage, which focuses on making higher density batteries to make sure the soaking we’re getting in the EV market stays green.
