Technology updates from Winds of Change. Next they'll be telling us about "high-intensity shafts of radiative energy controlled by on/off operation, composite metal-and-plastic hilts":
Water is critical. People can fast for several weeks without permanent damage, but a week without water will kill you - and drinking contaminated water can be just as deadly. As Jay notes, however, an astonishing new technology is available that could solve these problems as quickly as a few planeloads of the product - a small "magic" bag with gatorade-like powder in it - could get from here to there. It's called a HydroPack (Hat Tip: Joe Maller), has no moving parts, and combines nano-scale membrane technology with the simple principle of forward osmosis. Just throw it into the dirtiest water you can find, let it fill, then sip from the straw. This is a great technology that should be rushed into the military and disaster-relief procurement system post-haste.
Incredible. Integrate them into full-body suits, hire an adept fashion designer, notify the appropriate legal authorities to manufacture them to look like this, and you'll snag the life savings of every last Sci-Fi fan/military gear-wonk. Hand-held, 300MHz+ computers aside, Hydropack is probably the most mind-boggling, straight-from-fiction scientific victory since Fluosol (which doubtlessly inspired The Abyss, bringing us back to the art-life imitation cycle).
