Astrobiology Roundup: 5 Cool Stories
Five intriguing discoveries and recent news items
"malaria"
In Africa, Climate Change Wages War on Bodies, not Just Lands
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.
Annals of the Malaria War: Legions of Health Workers Launch an Attack
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...
Annals of the Malaria War: Move over Angelina Jolie
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.
![World's 10 Worst Toxic Pollution Problems [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/0B5674D7-0DFF-4085-92DABD7EAE3EFF3B_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
World's 10 Worst Toxic Pollution Problems [Slide Show]
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
![The Nose Knows: How Malaria Mosquitoes Sniff Out Human Targets [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/1F4E1A1E-894C-46FC-A58C23E561AB042C_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
The Nose Knows: How Malaria Mosquitoes Sniff Out Human Targets [Slide Show]
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...
![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)
2011 Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Inventor Prizes Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Medical and Security Screening Tech [Slide Show]
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...
![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)
Squashing Malaria: Advances in Research and Prevention [Slide Show]
From satellites to bacteria, researchers are searching high and low for the best tools to eradicate malaria
![Zombie Creatures: What Happens When Animals Are Possessed by a Parasitic Puppet Master? [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/DD418F85-6553-421A-8599FF147FDCA606_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Zombie Creatures: What Happens When Animals Are Possessed by a Parasitic Puppet Master? [Slide Show]
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
![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)
Mysterious Origins: 8 Phenomena That Defy Explanation [Slide Show]
The unknown origins behind language, handedness, flu seasons, superconductivity, antimatter, proton spin, cosmic rays and sex
The U.S.'s $18.8-Billion Global AIDS Initiative--5 Years Later
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?...
