Not a solar still, but a fabric that gathers nighttime dew and drains it to a catchbasin: story, video, homepage.

What are the implications for personal survival? I'm not suggesting that a person carry 50 pounds of plastic mesh in case they need to build one of these. But a thought experiment:

- Could this idea scale down to be leveraged by a survivor? If you could collect just 1/2 to 1 liter per day with little effort, it would be worthwhile and potentially lifesaving.

- How could the fabric's action be approximated with improvised or scavenged materials: bug netting? Fabric from the plane/auto? Drape a patchwork of spare clothing on a frame of saplings? How effective would this approximation be? What's the yield-to-work ratio?

I think it would be kinda cool to experiment with this.