"The challenge is to make a microbattery array that is robust enough and that does not have a single short circuit in the whole array via a process that can be scaled up cheaply, " said Prof Clare Grey from the University of Cambridge's chemistry department.
He has since scaled back his plans and is in the process of selling all but 300 or so of his pieces in an attempt to fund a traveling exhibit, a virtual museum and a national invention program for schoolchildren.