LifeStraw from Denmark’s Vestergaard Frandsen Group is a device about the size of a large pen or drinking straw and is a complete water purification kit that draws its power from the person sucking down the water. The LifeStraw is the product of ten years of development work, based on the goal of creating an efficient, affordable water-purification system for the developing world, where water-borne illnesses are a major killer. When produced in quantity, each LifeStraw — which uses a combination of mesh filters, iodine-impregnated beads and active carbon to remove particulate matter and bacteria — is expected to cost under $2 and be able to provide a year’s worth of pure drinking water. When and if this hits the market, we hope to see some worthy charity distributing them by the millions.