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TED - Safe Water for the World

Michael Pritchard invents a way to filter even the smallest virus to produce clean water.

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15 Comments

Current View: 15 / Show all Comments

nmosfet : LVL 40: VP 4.8: said:

nmosfet

Hidden (Show Comment) -10 votes

97 days 21 hours ago...

Umm.. what about chemicals/toxins/hormones? they are definitely smaller than 15nm. It sounds like it may be good for emergencies but I would not trust that for general use.

Niscimble : LVL 42: VP 5: said:

Niscimble

33 votes NegativePositive

97 days 19 hours ago...

^ Sure... but this is definitely a step in the right direction. At least someone out there is making progress.

choreboy : LVL 36: VP 4.4: said:

choreboy

37 votes NegativePositive

97 days 18 hours ago...

there are always naysayers.... i`d rather drink a few chemicals here and there than like 50 different viruses and bacterium...

mostafa.redha : LVL 41: VP 4.9: said:

mostafa.redha

14 votes NegativePositive

97 days 18 hours ago...

Wow, that`s pretty neat. I hope this will be used from now on.

blade9z : LVL 34: VP 4.2: said:

blade9z

15 votes NegativePositive

97 days 15 hours ago...

I hope its not like ink jet printers and vacume cleaner where you buy it for 10p and pay £15 for the ink or bag. Definitely great invention, we need more things like this.

Flynn_2006 : LVL 46: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

36 votes NegativePositive

97 days 15 hours ago...

so he`s the one who stole my poop.

Tada : LVL 44: VP 5: said:

Tada

21 votes NegativePositive

97 days 8 hours ago...

nmosfet: It removes pretty much anything which isn`t water. Last year I did my compulsory military training in Sweden, and these are the bottles we used whenever there wasn`t a clean water source within half a mile. The first day they wanted us to really trust the bottle, since we were going to use it almost daily in all kinds of situations, so our CO made one of us piss in the bottle and then the CO drank it. It`s pretty amazing stuff.

It doesn`t remove everything, but what it removes is enough for the water to be considered pure. There are more harmful things in the air your breath than is in the water coming out of that bottle.

Est : LVL 31: VP 4: said:

Est

18 votes NegativePositive

97 days 5 hours ago...

Unfortunately for those of us interested in spending our own money to get our hands on one, they`re going for about £115, or $150 right now.
I guess you can`t blame them though, such a product needs all the funding it can get to sustain itself and help as many as possible.
Brilliant solution to a difficult problem. He probably deserves a prize of some sort.

Vinz : LVL 36: VP 4.4: said:

Vinz

11 votes NegativePositive

96 days 19 hours ago...

I wonder if it works with salt water.

Edit: I found the answer. No, it doesn`t work. Wikipedia says sodium radius is less than 1 nm.

ieatpinkmuff : LVL 22: VP 3.1: said:

ieatpinkmuff

0 votes NegativePositive

96 days 14 hours ago...

wait i thought that certain bacteria have the capability to compress, under pressure. Sort of like how mice can get thru very thin or narrow openings by almost collapsing of squishing their way in.

So this invention because of how it uses the pumping to pressurize the water, wouldn`t that squeeze or forcefully push those bacteria thru the openings?

trumptmast : LVL 59: VP 5: said:

trumptmast

3 votes NegativePositive

96 days 12 hours ago...

Ahh, I remember doing this type of design project in college. We had to design a water filter/collector for everyone accessible from most places, especially third world countries. We came up with many great ideas (and there are many of them out there, for example, Mobile Filtration Vehicle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao, the LifeStraw, http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw.htm).

The only problem, like Est said, is that these things cost too much. 50% of the world population lives on less than $2.50 a day (http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats), so in order to buy this water filter, it would take them 5 years to save up... So it is a good idea if we can get the cost down or get government/charity to subsidize it. But until then, all of these idea cannot be implemented because of the cost.

vee445 : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

vee445

4 votes NegativePositive

96 days 11 hours ago...

I want to buy one of those for backpacking.

Presto : LVL 40: VP 4.8: said:

Presto

-7 votes NegativePositive

96 days 10 hours ago...

@ nmosfet

id like to see your diploma. Your a fucking retard.

frankweed : LVL 42: VP 5: said:

frankweed

-3 votes NegativePositive

96 days 10 hours ago...

With this new technology we could get rid of all the chemicals they put in the water. No more Cl, or medication in the drinking water woot!

coracile : LVL 36: VP 4.4: said:

coracile

9 votes NegativePositive

96 days 8 hours ago...

The sad thing is, water bottling companies might make sure this doesn`t happen...ever. The amount of revenue they generate from "aid" is immense.

But this is fantastic fantastic idea. a great and huge step forward in sci technology toward a better future.

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