You can pull the battery out of your camera, stuff it under your mattress, and come back for it in five years. The upshot is this happy factoid: No matter what you do, your battery will become a useless piece of junk-one day it will reach a point where it can no longer be charged, and then you’ll have to recycle it. “There is not too much to discuss,” he began, and then launched into a conversation exploring the numerous frailties of batteries. I asked Buchmann how we can make sure that our batteries last a long time. Buchman also runs Battery University, a very helpful Web site for battery enthusiasts and engineers. To clear up these annoyances and conflicting theories, I called up Isidor Buchmann, the CEO of Cadex Electronics, a Canadian company that makes battery-testing equipment.