TreeHugger has a story on camels that carry solar powered refrigeration systems. This is another briliant invention. It warms my heart to know that this is the product of the Art Center College of Design Designmatters program that I was fortunate to serve as an expert/judge for some years back. I had the honor of meeting with the class and discussing the challenges of logistics in the developing world along with an ER physician from one of LA’s toughest hospitals. It was a great experience and let me tell you that those folks are absolutely brilliant. They say that something like 70% of the cars on the road today were designed by Art Center graduates. If you are sitting around wondering what to do with your life stop thinking and start filling out your application. You could do much much worse. From the write-up:
Reaching the nomadic communities who roam the arid and hot Sahel of Africa with vaccines has always posed an exceptional challenge to health workers, particularly because vaccines need to be refrigerated. (See past posts on the Ice Battery.) National immunization programs to eliminate serious diseases like polio and measles rarely benefit pastoralist communities in Kenyan districts like Laikipia and Samburu, nor do those communities often get access other medications requiring refrigeration.
In the last two years, a team of designers, health workers, and development experts from Designmatters at the Art Center College of Design, Princeton’s Institute of Science and Technology of Materials, and the Mpala Community Trust has conceived and rolled out a clever mobile, refrigerated health clinic using solar energy and camels.
