2006 will go down in history as the year of the spontaneously combusting laptop battery. Fortunately, some manufacturers have been on the case (no pun intended) and have developed a new type of Li battery that includes a heat-resistive insulator inside the battery cell, next to an existing separator that insulates the anode and cathode.

So, even if that separator is punctured, says PCWorld, the short circuit that occurs won’t cause the battery to overheat or catch fire thus saving all those laps from flaming.