I've noticed that LED bulb packages say they'll last several years, but so many of them die after just a year or so. I should start tracking this precisely, but I've just gotten the sense that they often die prematurely.
I got that impression too, but it does say "But the path he has chosen involves one of the toughest problems in battery science, which is how to make an anode out of pure lithium or sodium metal."
I suppose that implies he's trying to make an anode out of pure lithium or sodium, but you never know with science journalism.