I've actually already talked about this briefly on facebook but I thought it deserved a more lasting and dedicated home. Each year we here in the developed countries get to experience the benefits of some pretty amazing gadgets. However, to be honest, most of these benefits are just ancillary to our actually living needs. They don't provide heat, food, water, or anything else that we absolutely need to sustain life. Don't get me wrong, I love my gadgets, but they are nothing more than perks of living in a place where I'm able to have the luxury time to enjoy them.
Thus, instead of naming things like the Galaxy SIII, iPhone 5, or the really neat Nest Thermostat as my gadgets of the year I want to focus on three amazing devices that, while maybe not invented this year, have the potential to vastly improve peoples lives and even save lives and which I just discovered this year.
The first is the LifeStraw. This thing is pretty neat. It is basically a really big straw that you can carry around and use it to drink out of really nasty water. It's got some kind of cool filtration system in it that doesn't use chemicals or power and which will provide a single person a years worth of clean water. You just stick one end in the muddy waste laden water and suck through it and you have clean water. It's pretty amazing. You can't use it to filter salt water - but if you have a fresh water puddle or stream filled with debris you can use it there to get a safe drink. They have a larger version that uses gravity, instead of your sucking, to draw the water though it as well which can be setup in your home and can filter water for a full family (of four I guess) for a year.
Second on the list is the Biolite Home Stove. It is a word burning stove that filters out the smoke that would otherwise pollute the room it is being used in. Plus it has a cool system built into it that converts the generated heat into electricity. Undeveloped countries are the worlds largest cell phone markets - so this stove can charge their cellphones (which are often their sole way of transmitting money or for any kind of banking). Plus it generates heat and can cook your food. On top of that it will pair wonderfully, I think with the third and final awesome gadget in this list.
20,000,000 babies are born premature every year. Of those 4,000,000 die - that is a horrendous statistic and it is sad because many of those deaths can be prevented if the baby had access to an incubator. Babies use up a ton of energy keeping themselves warm and premies barely have any energy in the first place. However, there is an amazing low cost incubation system out there called The Embrace. It is a sleeping bag that comes with a small electric heater and a revolutionary pad insert. You heat the pad in the heater, then insert the pad into a slot on the sleeping bag. The pad will maintain a constant temperature of about 98F for 4-6 hours. Thus you could plug the heater into the biolite stove, heat the pad while making your meal, and then keep your baby warm for about 5 hours until you next use the heater.
Thus with these three inventions people with limited infrastructure can drink, heat their food and homes, and keep their babies warm and alive. They are all pretty amazing products and I think it is cool that people are out there coming up with inventions like this. Kudos to those inventors and the organizations that are attempting to get them into the hands of people who need them.
#filtration #technology #heating #inventions #babies #saving-lives #gadgets #water #cooking