Scientific experiments are designed to benefit science. But what's to stop them from benefiting humanity at the same time? This is the question posed by an ambitious new project headed by Veerabhadran Ramanathan at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. Ramanathan is an expert in "black carbon," one of the major components of soot and has tracked huge clouds of it over the Indian and Pacific oceans. Much of that carbon seems to come from the developing world, where poor families cook over open stoves with wood or charcoal. No one really knows, however, just how large a role these stoves play in black carbon emissions.

So, in a perfect melding of science and philanthropy, Ramanathan wants to conduct a massive multimillion-dollar experiment whereby he replaces the stoves in 8,000 northern Indian households with low-tech, cleaner-burning stoves. Then, using tower and satellite-based sensors, he wants to monitor atmospheric changes and combine them with data taken from heat and particulate monitors mounted in the homes themselves. The results will not only tell scientists what role traditional cooking plays in climate change, they may help to lessen that role.

A woman in the Indian town of Amethi standing by a traditional stove and its fuel. The heavy smoke from the fire has blackened the wall around where she cooks and breathes.