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Hot device runs cold

By Rain Noe - December 11, 2008

in Object Culture

Fires are easy to start, which is why people have historically burned witches, undesirable books and post-plunder villages rather than freezing them into destruction. But a thermodynamics research team at Stanford (overseen by tech venture capitalist Adam Grosser) has developed

a thermos-sized device that contains a refrigerant that's triggered when the device is heated and left to cool. It then acts like a powerful cold pack, turning anything from a jug to a hole in the ground into a twenty-four-hour minifridge.

There are no details on how the device works, but a consumer-ready version is projected to cost only $50. It's too late to save the witches of Salem, copies of Luther's Bible translation or the villages of Mongolian conquest, but this new hot-cold contraption could save millions in the future by keeping needed vaccines cold.

via esquire and crunch gear

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aleafinwater

16 years ago

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Please let this $50 object be offered on a 'give-1-get-1' basis. Who do I need to call to get the ball rolling?
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Shalin

16 years ago

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Explainer:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/adam_grosser_and_his_sustainable_fridge.html
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Tyler

16 years ago

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This reminds me, I was watching on the news about cholera outbreaks in Africa. They showed images of people collecting the water, in every instance, in a plastic container. Seems to me that they really need metal containers that they can boil the water in. This idea is nice for medicine transport I guess, but a cheap boiler/bucket for the water they use could help prevent cholera outbreaks. Right?
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