Burn Baby Burn!

This is an amazing story. John Kanzius, a 63 year old retired broadcast engineer, was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago. Cancer treatment being what it is (e.g. chemotherapy), he was inspired to find a better way to help cancer patients. He went to work on a machine that used radio waves to kill cancer cells. But that's not the story (amazing as it already is). His machine has an amazing side effect: It can burn salt water!

"You could take plain salt water out of the sea, put it in containers and produce a violent flame that could heat generators that make electricity, or provide other forms of energy," Kanzius said.
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"If I were to be bold enough, I think one day you could power an automobile with this, eventually," Kanzius told WPBF. (click here for full story)

So how about that? Go and try to find a cure for cancer and invent free energy on the side. Sounds like a good day to me. And yet the major news networks haven't picked up on it. As of today, my CNN.com search on Kanzius doesn't bring up any results. If it's fake, they would be helping to find that out by bringing attention to it. They can cover it with a skeptic's angle. But it's pretty recent, I also don't get a result for Kanzius on wikipedia and snoops. Why wouldn't they cover it?

Thus far, Kanzius' work has not received extensive national publicity, but has been featured on several local television news programs, including WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., WSEE-TV in Erie, Pa., and WKYC-TV in Cleveland. (click here for full story)

I imagine that at this point, the problem with the technology is the same as other systems trying to use water as a fuel:

"It takes more electricity to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen than you get back in energy by burning the hydrogen and oxygen to recreate water and get the heat. So there is no new 'source' of power, since you are just converting electricity into a lesser amount of energy. You could get more heat energy out of electricity by running it through a blow dryer and THAT is not considered a 'new' energy source." (click here for full story)

I know stories like these are not exactly rare, but this is important enough that attention should be brought to people who have at least a semblance of credibility. The possibilities are just too great to allow it to be ignored. If Britney Spears shaving her head is news worthy, isn't this?

Over at Magistrala.cz there's a bunch of video clips showing Kanzius demonstrating his machine. There are also links to his patents. Click here to see them.



This story reminded me of my countryman Mr. Daniel Dingel. Dingel claims to have built a car that runs on water way back in 1969. Which would have been great, but his refusal to subject his invention to rigorous tests leads people to believe it's a hoax. Read this article for the story.

Sources:
Turning Salt Water Into Fuel by Justin Gardner
Can Water Fuel the World by Joe Kovacs
Fla. Man Turns Water Into Fire from ABC WPBF.TV 25