On Sep 1, 2006, at 8:15 AM, Russell McMahon wrote:

>>> Boiling water to sterilise it.
>
>> <---- this is a major innovation ?

> If you didn't have this technology and another group did then your
> survival rates would vastly exceed theirs under certain quite
> realistic circumstances.
>
> Once upon a not too many centuries ago...

Lack of sterilized water is still a major problem in many
third world countries.  I went to a talk some time ago by ex-pres
Carter, and he commented that there are some major parasite
problems that can be solved via some relatively simple filtering.
(I think it was a multi-cell parasite larva, so we're talking
filters not nearly so high-tech as are available to 1st world
hikers.)  There was a technical innovation in that some company
had been motivated to produce appropriate filter material as a
bulk process.

(Boiling water is very energy intensive and rather slow.  There
are a lot of places where it isn't practical.)

BillW
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