Fantastic week at the Natural History Museum

We had a fantastic week at the Natural History Museum as part of Universities Week.   Many of our visitors were shocked to learn how many people didn't have access to a toilet and were pleased we were doing something about it.   Visitors included school groups, international tourists and Londoners on a day out, especially the latter on the late night opening on Wednesday when we talked non-stop.   One of the school boys said "that's the coolest toilet I've ever seen!"

The stall looked fantastic:

And was very popular - everyone had heard about "the toilet" and wanted to see what the fuss was about.

 Visitors even tested the prototype for comfort.

Five of the stands at the Natural History Museum were singled out in a feature in the Guardian and we were delighted that an interview with our designer, Ross Tierney, was included.

The only downside was we would have liked an opportunity to meet with David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, who visited some of the other stands, but didn't want to be seen with a toilet!

Sharing the toilet with the Sharing Knowledge Foundation

We were delighted to be invited to speak about the Toilet at the 9th Sharing Knowledge Foundation Conference in Lisbon from 15th-17th May 2014.    The Sharing Knowledge Foundation was set up by Professors at CERN with a concern for global issues including water, energy and international cooperation in science.   We were delighted that they'd decided to include sanitation and invite us to speak on the issue.

Alison's talk started with a graphic introduction to the challenge (she has a good library of photos!) and then she described the Nano Membrane Toilet with the help of the video.

The participants were very interested in our solution, although they were very aware of the challenges we face in keeping the costs low enough.

A video of Alison's presentation is available here: