From NSF Press Release 2/20/08
A diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced 14 grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century that, if met, would improve how we live.The Challenges:
* Make solar energy affordable
* Provide energy from fusion
* Develop carbon sequestration methods
* Manage the nitrogen cycle
* Provide access to clean water
* Restore and improve urban infrastructure
* Advance health informatics
* Engineer better medicines
* Reverse-engineer the brain
* Prevent nuclear terror
* Secure cyberspace
* Enhance virtual reality
* Advance personalized learning
* Engineer the tools for scientific discovery
To read the entire press release, please click Leading Engineers and Scientists Identify Advances That Could Improve Quality of Life Around the World - US National Science Foundation (NSF)
On the Colbert Report last night (3/20/08), Dean Kamen, founder and president, DEKA Research and Development Corp., announced the vapor compression distiller that makes clean water from any liquid source--without membranes, filters or chemicals!
Each distiller can provide 1000 liters of clean pure distilled water per day. Fifty percent of all human disease is caused by water-borne pathogens. These distillers, once produced and distributed worldwide, will go a long way to curing disease.
Science may save us yet!
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2 comments:
I love the Colbert report. I want one of those for my house. I have a reverse osmosis system along with a softener, but still end up buying bottled water sometimes.
@jacqui-I think it is wonderful that the young entrepreneurs are using their minds for useful purposes in addition to making money.
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