Dean Kamen, who is perhaps most famous for inventing the Segway was featured on The Colbert Report on Thursday, March 20 for his newest creation. This invention, a Vapor Compression Distiller can take any liquid and purify it into clean, drinkable water.
There are some great things about this invention:
1. It does not require any filters, membranes, chemicals, etc, so there aren't continual costs of replacing needed materials.
2. It can remove any impurity from minerals to sewage to hard metals to Doritos (please see the video clip of the interview from the show and you'll see what I mean)
3. It can produce 1000 liters of water in a single day, or 50 of those wonderful "water cooler-sized" bottles
These machines could be mass produced and placed across the world to help eliminate disease and provide the world with potable water. I'm not exactly sure how much these machines cost, but they probably aren't quite affordable for all areas, especially in third world countries. It would be amazing to see this invention put to work in poverty stricken countries were water-born disease runs rampant.
I think it would be a great idea if we could start some kind of fund or site where people could donate in order to supply these incredible machines in order to help others. I would love to spark some publicity about vapor compression distillers and get in touch with Dean Kamen himself in regards to costs. His invention seemed like such a progressive idea to me that I really want to support it, and I hope some fellow ProgressiveUers agree.
So, if you think that helping to supply vapor compression distillers to nations around the world sounds like a good idea, please comment or write me a message. I'd really like to see if there would be enough support to get a program like this running.
If you think there is another resource that is currently available that could help the masses more than a vapor compression distiller, please let me know that as well. I am really looking for a worthy invention that needs some help getting off the ground in order to help others across the world. Let's use our ProgressiveU writing and ideas to create some progressive actions!
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