Gas from rotting manure could fuel the future. Biogas digesters, devices that turn decomposing manure into fuel, are cost-effective, environmentally friendly and improve the health of rural people who use them. In the first rigorous study on their costs and benefits, Govindasamy Agoramoorthy of Tajen University in P'ingtung, Taiwan, and Minna Hsu of National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, found that rural Indian families with biogas plants used 60 per cent less firewood and kerosene (Human Ecology, DOI: 10.1007/s10745-008-9163-8).