Kamen's water purifier and power generators for poor villages

Inventor Dean Kamen has developed "two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages" and is planning a scheme of village-entrepreneurs for selling them.

"Eighty percent of all the diseases you could name would be wiped out if you just gave people clean water," says Kamen. "The water purifier makes 1,000 liters of clean water a day, and we don't care what goes into it. And the power generator makes a kilowatt off of anything that burns."

Sounds promising.