Knees Are The New Window to the Soul

Knee Eric Poscher (GNU Free Documentation License)

A stove that burns trash while cooking food is being plugged as a way to combat the problem of excessive trash, while also providing a means to cook food and boil water for the poor in Kenya. The "community cooker" -- which is close to being put in use -- burns at a high enough temperature "to destroy toxins in the rubbish, particularly plastic." There's a tall chimney meant to carry away the fumes but, I still can't quite imagine wanting to eat anything that's been so close to the smell and emissions from burning garbage.

Also in today's links: science and Islam, garbage and food, and more.

• First they tell us to keep viruses out of our computers, now viruses can power our computers?
• A large survey gathered data on how high school students in Pakistan and Indonesia feel about and understand evolution. One of the lead researchers cites this as the "empirical data for how Muslim students, teachers and scientists think about the subject" -- which would probably be better phrased as "how Muslim students, teachers and scientists in those two particular countries think about the subject." There's a pretty wide array of attitudes in the Muslim world. Turkey, we're looking at you.
• Knees can tell you a lot about a person. For instance, mine say I'm a klutz. There's a big scar from where I tripped over the dog, another from slipping on ice, a shorter scar from stitches after a biking accident, although the gravel that was in there for several years has now worked its way out. God only knows how pockmarked the bones underneath are. But such irregularities might let me be more easily identified using the latest biometric measure: knee analysis.
• Examining the heart cells of people exposed to nuclear radiation has provided evidence that heart cells regenerate, an issue that has not ever been fully resolved.