Category: inventions

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In the 1920’s newly hired engineers…

In the 1920’s newly hired engineers at General Electric would be told, as a joke, to develop a frosted lightbulb. The experienced engineers believed this to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment not realizing it was a joke and succeeded.

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19th-century inventor Charles…

19th-century inventor Charles Cros petitioned the French government to build a giant set of mirrors that could be used to communicate with aliens by scorching messages onto the surfaces of Venus and Mars. His request was declined.

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The first patent for an electronic…

The first patent for an electronic cigarette was already filed in 1963, but inventor Herbert Gilbert never found a company willing to mass-produce his invention. His device works the same way as modern e-cigarettes, “containing a liquid that was warmed by a battery-powered device, creating a vapor that a person inhaled”.

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After Almost Losing His Mother, This Teen Invented a Bra That Can Detect Breast Cancer Early

I bet we’ll be hearing from this young man for many years.

After Julián Ríos Cantú watched his mother endure two bouts with breast cancer, the 18-year-old from Mexico decided he wanted to help out other women who might not have access to affordable healthcare.

Posted by Julián Ríos Cantú on Monday, November 20, 2017

Cantú’s mother ended up having a mastectomy. Standard screenings missed the lumps in his mother’s breasts because her high breast density obscured the growths. Cantú said, “At that moment, I realized that if that was the case for a woman with private insurance and a prevention mindset, then for most women in developing countries, like Mexico where we’re from, the outcome could’ve not been a mastectomy but death.”

Cantú took matters into his own hands, inventing Eva, a “bio-sensing bra insert” that uses thermal sensing and artificial intelligence to create a thermal map of women’s breasts. Abnormal temperatures and tumor growth are related, and an Eva insert can help women detect cancerous growths. It also helps with the self-examination process.

As things stand today, patients don’t have a lot of options for early detection of breast cancer. If you’re under 45, you can’t receive mammograms due to concerns about exposure to radiation. Even if you’re over that age, mammograms can be very expensive.

The Eva technology does not emit any radiation, and women of all ages can wear the insert.

The company has performed clinical trials on more than 2,000 women in Mexico. Eva’s website says,

“Eva’s technology is approved by the FDA as an adjunct method for breast cancer detection in section 884.2980 Teletermographic Systems. Similarly, Eva Clinic operates under the highest ethical standards, strictly following the Official Mexican Standard NOM-041-SSA2-2011, for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, control, and surveillance of breast cancer.”

The product is now available for use at certified Eva clinics, but who knows? Maybe someday it’ll be in our houses, helping women detect breast cancer even earlier.

The post After Almost Losing His Mother, This Teen Invented a Bra That Can Detect Breast Cancer Early appeared first on UberFacts.

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Willem Kolff created…

Willem Kolff created the first dialysis machine in the Netherlands during WWII. Lacking materials, he used sausage casings, tin cans, a washing machine, and salt water. He also saved more than 800 people from the Nazis by hiding them in his hospital. And he later invented the artificial heart.

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This New Floating Tent Looks like It Might Be a Recipe for Disaster

A company invented a “floating tent,” then promptly got roasted by the people of the Internet, which they tend to do.

The Shoal Tent is an inflatable tent that allows you to camp on water instead of on land — an objectively terrible and dangerous idea. This contraption is somewhere between a raft and a boat, both of which already exist. Unlike a raft, this tent is huge and very expensive. And unlike a boat, you can’t steer it away from a waterfall.

Fun!

Photo Credit: Twitter

Mashable published a video showcasing the Shoal Tent on Twitter, where users tore it to shreds.

“Why camp by a river when you can camp on one?” the tweet read.

In addition to waterfalls, there’s also the danger of puncturing the raft and taking on water, leading to a watery death. Or running into predators, such as bears or alligators.

Or simply waking up 100 miles away from where you parked. Hilariously, the Shoal Tent boasts that it can “stand up to heavy winds” (by… being pushed around by them?).

Plus, how do you get out of the tent and back onto land? What happens if you have to pee?

Truly, it seems like the inventors of the floating tent are not at all concerned about what happens after you push off from shore. But even they understand that it could invite emergency scenarios. On the website, there is the somewhat disconcerting disclaimer that you can “get in and out easily through the sides if the need arises suddenly.”

Photo Credit: Twitter

As with all crappy inventions, some people will actually buy and use this product. In fact, it’s currently back-ordered due to popular demand, and there’s a wait time of at least six weeks. It’s available from SmithFly for the hefty price of $1999.

Or you could just “camp on water” in, y’know, ANY other way. Like on a boat.

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