SlingShot

As a child, Dean Kamen was inquisitive about everything, such as why a ball goes less high each time it bounces. He never lost that childlike sense of curiosity. Nowadays, Kamen is a permanently denim-clad grown man who talks passionately about his inventions, which include the Segway, the two-wheeled human transporter. His new project aims to save the world from a shortage of clean, pure water. We accompany him as he prepares for a time when, even in the poorest parts of the world, there will be a machine producing clean water. But it soon becomes clear that for the global roll-out of this water purification machine, which has even been praised by Bill Clinton, he needs a major partner. Who can help him get it to the right places? After a long search, Kamen realizes that there is just one company whose product can be found everywhere, and that company is Coca Cola, the same multinational that was the target of so much criticism in the past for exhausting local water supplies in its manufacturing process. For Kamen, it’s just the latest obstacle on his path. But, as he says himself, if you’re an inventor, “you have to be an optimist.” It’s not without reason that he’s named his water machine the SlingShot, after the weapon David used to defeat the giant Goliath.