If his invention proves successful, John Kanzius may one day be known as a man who found a treatment for cancer, found a way to provide fresh drinking water to the world and ended the fuel crisis. And, even though that day may not be too far in the future, Kanzius fears he might not live to see it.
Kanzius has invented a machine that uses radio waves to zap tumors in rabbits and mice, can set salt water on fire and can use that fire to fuel an engine. He's done this with no medical degree, no Ph.D., not even a bachelor's degree. The only important degrees in Kanzius' life measure how hot he wants to heat metal with a radio wave.
It all started six years ago when Kanzius was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Then 58, he resigned himself to his death sentence. "It was a real kick in the rear end,” he said.
A visit to University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston changed his life. He was in an elevator headed to the seventh floor for a painful bone marrow test, but the elevator door opened instead on the ninth floor, the children's ward.
Kanzius had no idea there were so many children suffering with cancer, a disease he had always considered an adult disease. But dozens of children were on the ninth floor that day, watching him with sad, hollow eyes that spoke volumes of the painful treatments they were enduring, just as he was.
"I thought, you know, if I've got a death sentence at 58 or 59 years old, I've lived my life and met a lot of people," Kanzius said.
"But these young kids never got a chance to live. That is horrible."
The vision of those sick children never left Kanzius' mind, even as he returned home to Erie, Pa., and began a series of chemotherapy treatments. The treatments were painful, exhausting and weakened his immune system, so Kanzius decided to buy a home in Sanibel, Fla., where at least the warm weather was a little easier on his immune system.
Sleepless night experiments
The chemotherapy caused
