When pilots and sailors were shot down or torpedoed in the Pacific, they often died not from the crash, but from thirst. Adrift on life rafts, surrounded by water they couldn't drink, dehydration killed them before rescue could arrive.
A Hungarian-American scientist named Mária Telkes solved it with a device that fit inside the raft. A lightweight, inflatable still that used nothing but sunlight to evaporate seawater and condense it into fresh drinking water. It became standard emergency equipment, saving countless lives.
Most people have never heard her name. She was called the "Sun Queen," registered over 20 patents, and later built the world's first solar-heated home. But her most important invention was the one that turned sunlight into survival.
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