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We should have courses in comparative genocide, says Carlin Romano, reviewing a book with the creepy title, Why Not Kill Them All:

"Mass killing is neither irrational nor in any sense 'crazy.'" Genocide is a largely "rational" policy decision that can, in principle, be combated and blocked by counter measures.

The New Yorker has a good article about the state of physics and string theory that touches on some of the bigger issues, like what defines science, the role of beauty in that definition, and the role of authority in shaping the discipline.

One way to fight global warming is to bury carbon.

Plug-in hybrids are good, but not perfect:

For a plug-in owner in California, where most electricity on the grid is generated by low-pollution facilities, driving a PHEV might cut emissions of carbon dioxide by one-third compared with driving a regular hybrid.

But if the same PHEV were charged in the Midwest, where coal-fired power plants supply the electricity, reduction of CO2 emissions would be nil. Nitrous-oxide emissions (which form smog) would fall slightly, but sulfur-dioxide emissions (which contribute to acid rain) would quadruple.

George Johnson briefly and dismissively reviews a pair of books that try to harmonize science and religion.

Anne Applebaum has this to say about the Pope's remarks about Islam and the Muslim world's reaction:

Nothing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all. And maybe it's time that it should: When Saudi Arabia publishes textbooks commanding good Wahhabi Muslims to "hate" Christians, Jews and non-Wahhabi Muslims, for example, why shouldn't the Vatican, the Southern Baptists, Britain's chief rabbi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations all condemn them -- simultaneously?

John Krenson agrees:

We accept immoral expressions of outrage by Muslims across the world and yet fail to have any of our own justified moral indignation at their actions. Instead we apologize for causing their reactions. Perhaps I should apologize to my four year old for his little temper tantrum this morning and for the time he slugged his sister in the face with a toy.

But he's Catholic, so obviously he's biased. So here's Sam Harris, who's clearly no fan of the pope:

We are entering an age of unchecked nuclear proliferation and, it seems likely, nuclear terrorism. There is, therefore, no future in which aspiring martyrs will make good neighbors for us. Unless liberals realize that there are tens of millions of people in the Muslim world who are far scarier than Dick Cheney, they will be unable to protect civilization from its genuine enemies.

Religious left versus religious right: Jim Wallis opens, Ralph Reed responds, and Wallis gets (so far) the last word.

Should elementary school kids have homework?

The right decision, made too late: WHO endorses the use of DDT to fight malaria.

Popular Mechanics has a debate about the merits of nuclear power.

William Saletan discusses vegetative states and brain scans:

The analysis in Science concludes that she has a "rich mental life" but may not be "conscious." What in God's name does that mean? Would you pull the plug on a 24-year-old relative with a rich and responsive but unconscious mental life? Go ahead, raise your hand. Or just think about raising it, and we'll record your vote by brain scan.

Technology Review is running a list of young innovators. My favorites are Christina Galitsky, designing efficient stoves and water filtering methods; Utkan Demirci, diagnosing HIV/AIDS cheaply; and Michael Raab, making the ethanol manufacturing process more efficient.

Paul Marshall on religion in the media:

The significance of this forced conversion has been downplayed in the media. The New York Times and the Washington Post even pronounced the two "unharmed" on release. This judgment is perverse. If Muslim prisoners in American custody were forced to convert to Christianity on pain of death or as a condition of release, the press would denounce it as virtual torture, and rightly so: No sane person would say the prisoners had suffered no harm.

Aquaculture can save the oceans, revitalize the inner city, and feed the world, all in one package.

The American education system is broken. Our learning system, on the other hand:

It provides second chances. It tries to teach people when they're motivated to learn -- which isn't always when they're in high school or starting college.

Multi-drug resistant TB is bad enough. Now there's extreme drug resistant TB.

Seed takes a look at some of our weapons in the battle against malaria.

Ronald Bailey: "Who has saved perhaps more lives than anyone else in history?"

Genetically modifying your immune cells can help you fight off skin cancer.