Larry wrote:
Gogarty wrote in news:20090421-210944.92.0
@Gogarty.news.bway.net:

You make a very good point. Are there not emergency stills that work on
sunlight?




Yes. Only trouble is they are evaporators, not stills. Biology grows
right up to around 180F so these solar evaps are easily contaminated, a
source of nasty bacteria because they are just right inside in temperature.

If you don't see it boil, it just isn't safe.

Well, for most common pathogens, you are pretty much correct. However,
there are many spore forming thermophiles whose spores will just laugh
at you if you try to kill them with boiling water. Throw in 10 spores
of G. stearothermophilus in your boiling water. They'll still be happy
to grow up after boiling for 10 hours.

And you can throw in 10 B. subtilis/atrophaeus spores in your dry jar
and put in the oven at 250°F. They'll still be viable 600 hours later.
You'd need 10 minutes at 320°F. Dry heat sterilization is much less
effective than moist heat, for most all types of bugs, so jack up the
temp when you're trying to sterilize things in an oven.

Keith Hughes