When I stepped into the schoolhouse, I instinctively tucked my camera back inside its case. Health workers had taken over its one room for the day, and a ritualistic exchange of greetings gave way to tense silence.
Mercury, lead, chromium and other toxic compounds, used in many industrial processes, rob years of healthy life from millions each year. Simple fixes could go far in solving the issue
We’re driving on a dirt road and my interpreter, one of the friendliest guys I’ve ever met, is absorbed in a conversation with a health worker in our group.
While the African Union concentrates on strategies to mitigate the devastating financial effects climate change is having on Africans, I worry instead about its impact on our bodies.
Five intriguing discoveries and recent news items
Automatic gear shifting for safer and more efficient wheelchairs; a technique for harnessing terahertz spectroscopy; "humanized" lab mice; and cheaper, more accurate malaria testing--meet this year's crop of Lemelson-M.I.T. collegiate student prize winners
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From fungi to flies, some parasitic species have figured out how to control their host's behavior to get what they need. See what happens when bugs go really bad
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Researchers are learning much more about how Anopheles gambiae, the primary malaria mosquito, uses its smell organs to find human targets; the work involved stunning images from scanning electron microscopes
The Bush administration's international AIDS program has been hailed as a success story, but will President-elect Obama follow through with a higher quality, fewer-strings-attached plan?
The unknown origins behind language, handedness, flu seasons, superconductivity, antimatter, proton spin, cosmic rays and sex
From satellites to bacteria, researchers are searching high and low for the best tools to eradicate malaria
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![2011 Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Inventor Prizes Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Medical and Security Screening Tech [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/A29D64B1-858F-4E50-A19F2CFE340033B4_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
![Mysterious Origins: 8 Phenomena That Defy Explanation [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/BBEA83D8-B1BC-4C1B-A59C0107F239999D_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
![Squashing Malaria: Advances in Research and Prevention [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/BF500A41-5D85-495B-9EE140D325DC847E_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)