Keeping It Safe

By Maryanne Murray Buechner, Lev Grossman and Anita Hamilton

SAFETY CHUTE

The World Trade Center attack created a lot of interest in ways to get people out of skyscrapers in a hurry. Here's a novel solution: the AMES-1, an evacuation system that looks like an amusement-park water slide. A Kevlar rescue chute is installed in the outer wall of a building. In an emergency the unit springs open and the chute uncoils to the ground. It takes about 19 seconds to slide to safety from the top floor of an 11-story building. INVENTOR Eli Nir AVAILABILITY Now, $20,000 TO LEARN MORE www.ames-1.com

DON'T DRINK THE KOOL-AID

Singles bars have never been risk free, but so-called date-rape drugs give you one more reason to be cautious. After a friend was attacked by a man who may have spiked her drink, Francisco Guerra developed a cardboard drink coaster that can identify two of the most popular date-rape drugs: gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and ketamine. Just place a drop of liquid on the coaster, and rub it in with your finger. If the spot turns blue, toss that cocktail. Fifteen million of these coasters have already been distributed; look for them at 7-Elevens around Christmastime. INVENTOR Francisco Guerra AVAILABILITY Now, 40-c- a coaster TO LEARN MORE www.drinksafetech.com

SEARCH AND DESTROY

If you close your eyes, fire a squirt gun around the room and listen carefully, you'll hear a different noise depending on what was hit (wall, rug, sleeping cat). That's the principle behind ELADIN, the newest idea in mine detection. By shooting water into a minefield and monitoring sounds, the system can detect and disarm explosives without setting them off. There's certainly no shortage of targets: tens of millions of mines lie buried in war zones around the world. INVENTOR David Summers AVAILABILITY Prototype only TO LEARN MORE eladin.umr.edu