Imagine removing the grate and vents from your fireplace, and moving it to the middle of your kitchen floor. Now use it three times a day to cook your meals. It will produce lots of smoke that you and your children will breathe in, which is almost as harmful as cigarette smoke. It causes pneumonia in children, a disease which is fatal to many in the developing world. Smoke kills 1.6 million people around the world every year. As an extra bonus, your open fire will produce a great deal of carbon dioxide, which harms the environment—the burning of wood fuel accounts for 18% of the human contribution to climate change. Benjamin West and the rest of the team at StoveTec decided to engineer a solution to all of these problems. Their innovative $8 stove is still wood powered, but it requires half as much fuel and produces 70% less smoke and carbon dioxide.

Recorded June 2010; Posted August 2010