Sonaar Luthra: Meet the Water Canary

http://www.ted.com After a crisis, how can we tell if water is safe to drink? Current tests are slow and complex, and the delay can be deadly, as in the cholera outbreak after Haiti's earthquake in 2010. TED Fellow Sonaar Luthra previews his design for a simple tool that quickly tests water for safety -- the Water Canary.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate

If you have questions or comments about this or other TED videos, please go to http://support.ted.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Sonaar Luthra
• Water
• Canary
• crisis
• design
• development
• technology
• TED
• TEDTalk
• TEDTalks
• TED Talk
• TED Talks
• TEDGlobal

[nittle90]

I bet none of the designers are red-green colorblind...

[ymarmash]

no patent yet hence the lack of explanation...

[MichaelSmathers]

ATTENTION IDIOT* silver colloidal Ions from normal silver metal DESTROY virulent pathogens...

So before you rant about a complex system of intellectual bullshit with million dollar funds from Other Peoples Money. Consider this: (KISS)

Go play a liberal Politician or Eco- Freak with OPM......SOMEWHERE ELSE!

[JohnShandy]

@mrdotbryce Dear fucking moron, as he did say, the device tests for pathogens such as cholera. Signed, -Normal person

[mrdotbryce]

blunt promises he demonstrates nothing he doesnt even say what the device tests for !! is this an attempt at seducing business partners ? very disappointed with similar advertisements regularly being validated on ted

[daras07]

@ennot They are probably just measuring how much light is scattered or absorbed in the sample... like ordinary turbidity measurements..

[lightandbeautiful]

Homosexual activists understand the power of words.

Please visit my channel to watch a one-minute video clip in which popular atheist author Richard Dawkins admits that homosexual activists "hijacked the word 'gay'".

The word "homosexual" is more appropriate and accurate because it, unlike the word "gay", actually describes the behavior/attraction/relationsh­ip being discussed.

The word "gay" helps homosexual activists push their agenda.

[USMerchantMarines]

Someone please explain the dislikes to me.

[Gazonkie]

open-source hardware, wow.. incredible

[lebasson]

@ymarmash how does patenting a product actually relate to opensourcing it?

[haigfeinn]

spread the water!!!

[dans1121]

i would have liked to hear this a year from now when they would actually explain the product