Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Inventors Are Still Around, Still Inventing Stuff

Emily Cummins, for example, invented a solar-powered refrigerator as a schoolchild in UK, it can be made of simple materials and is making a difference in impoverished Africa.

Ms. Cummins' refrigerator appears to work on the same principle as the old-fashioned ice cream freezer, with evaporation of water leading to cooling inside a metal container.

Another example is the clockwork radio invented by Trevor Baylis in 1989, which also allows poor people to listen to news in places where electricity and batteries are scarce.

Anyone can be an inventor. All it takes is the ability to recognize a need and figure out a way to fulfill that need. The hard part is realizing that a need exists, and imagination is necessary for that.

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