Scientists used a Dutch woman's dirty stocking to learn that mosquitoes infected with malaria find humans hard to resist. Like a fungus that turns ants into zombies, the parasite seems to change the behavior of the mosquitoes for its own benefit.

Infecting mosquitoes with a specific type of bacteria makes the insects resistant to malaria. Now scientists have figured out how to get the mosquitoes to pass the infections on to their offspring. If it can done reliably, it might help interrupt transmission of malaria to humans.

The relatively scarce "sweet wormwood" plant has long been the only source of the herbal drug artemisinin. A new trick for making artemisinin in the lab should help even out supplies around the world, scientists say, and cut the cost of malaria treatment.

A scientist in Thailand raises mosquito colonies so she can study a new malaria drug. The insects are quite spoiled 鈥� they'll eat only live human blood. So she feeds them "breakfast" each day from her right arm.