Core77

Fires are easy to start, which is why people have historically burned witches, undesirable books and post-plunder villages rather than freezing them into destruction. But a thermodynamics research team at Stanford (overseen by tech venture capitalist Adam Grosser) has developed

a thermos-sized device that contains a refrigerant that's triggered when the device is heated and left to cool. It then acts like a powerful cold pack, turning anything from a jug to a hole in the ground into a twenty-four-hour minifridge.

There are no details on how the device works, but a consumer-ready version is projected to cost only $50. It's too late to save the witches of Salem, copies of Luther's Bible translation or the villages of Mongolian conquest, but this new hot-cold contraption could save millions in the future by keeping needed vaccines cold.

via esquire and crunch gear