If Curt Elmore's portable drinking water system would have been available a few years ago, there might have been plenty of good water to drink after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Dr. Elmore is working on a prototype of an emergency drinking water system that is powered by wind and solar energy and employs UV light to disinfect contaminated water. Water from rivers or ponds can be pumped into the system, which is small enough to fit in the back of a pick-up truck. The contaminated water is treated under a UV lamp -- which looks a lot like a fluorescent light bulb but is powerful enough to kill bad bacteria -- and then the cleansed water is held in a storage tank that has a spigot. The system would allow people at emergency shelters (or soldiers in combat zones) to fill up personal water bottles. Elmore says commercial versions of the emergency drinking water system may some day be available to municipalities...

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who can tell us where the headline of this post comes from.