India’s “Barefoot Engineers” Light Up The World

The Barefoot College in northern India teaches women skills to bring solar power to their villages and to manage the energy system in rural areas.

The students are mostly women. Some are grandmothers. Hundreds have come here from villages across India and a dozen other countries to learn how to install and maintain solar energy systems in rural areas. (more…)

Pure Water – Healthy Children

Brink is a 30 minute series on the Science Channel, hosted by Josh Zepps, that provides insight into breakthroughs in technology, research, inventions, discoveries and the mysteries of the scientific world. One particular episode had a segment on an incredibly easy, cheap, simplistic way of purifying drinking water.

Around the world about 5,000 children die every DAY from drinking dirty water. Now there is a revolutionary way to clean water that’s cheap, easy to use, and extremely portable. Just one packet of PUR can clean about 2.5 gallons (10 liters) of water. It was developed in part by Procter and Gamble‘s Greg Allgood, founder of the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. (more…)

Transports, Filters, and Stores Water for the Developing World

Do you know the world’s leading cause of death? The answer is, waterborne diseases. If clean drinking water is not available, then you WILL drink whatever is. Even if you have to traverse a long, time-consuming, laborious distance, everyday to get it. Even if, after all the work to get this water, it could cause you or a member of your family to die. But, without it, you die. According to the W.H.O., 1.1 billion people have no access to any type of improved drinking source of water.

But, what if…..

In its present configuration it is not a feasible solution for most developing communities due to production costs and durability. But in fairness to the IDEO team, they have stated that, “In its current state, the Aquaduct is a prototype aimed squarely at demonstrating a concept and raising awareness around the issues of clean water in developing countries. The Aquaduct team plans to continue the concept’s development into an economically and technologically viable solution that addresses challenges such as cost, suitable purification technologies, and the logistics of addressing an issue that [affects] billions.”

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Salt, an abundant mineral of which there are 14,000 known uses. The body contains about 75 grams of salt for a 110 pd (50 kg) human. We literally can not live without it.

Salt is composed mostly of sodium (an alkali) and chloride. The feedstock of the chlor alkali industry just as petroleum is for the petrochemical industry. Mix salt with water and then pass electricity through it, you get compounds like caustic soda, chlorine, and hydrogen. The essential building blocks in everything from food, clean drinking water, to pharmaceuticals.

Now let’s skip the other 13,990 some odd uses for the sake of time, space, and an imprint of the keyboard on your forehead, and get down to something a little more exciting. (more…)

A young Jewett, Texas mother told me her 7 year old son came home from school with a
packet of wildflower seeds stapled to a letter. The letter was dated April 22, Earth
Day. It was from a company called Nucor, and it said (not quoting here), that it was
giving these wildflower seeds to all the young school children to experience their
first occasion to participate in Earth Day, and watch the wonder of beautiful flowers
grow from seeds they planted with their own hands. (more…)