Five years of exhaustive research has yielded the key to thwarting “the most dangerous animal on the planet:” disarming its nose. Scientists at two American universities have pulled apart the 70 different and distinct receptors that work in a mosquito’s nose, or antennae, to lead the insects to human skin.

The discovery represents a major advance in the all-out war by scientists around the world and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate malaria.

(Continue reading from HealthZone.com)

Here's a low-cost solution to global warming and a host of other problems: chicken manure.

At Josh Frye's poultry farm in West Virginia, the chicken waste is fed into a large, experimental incinerating machine. Out comes a charcoal-like substance known as "biochar" — which is not only an excellent fertilizer, but also helps keep carbon in the soil instead of letting it escape into the atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas.

Former vice president and environmental advocate Al Gore calls biochar "one of the most exciting new strategies" available to stop climate change. For Frye, it means that, before long, "the chicken poop could be worth more than the chickens themselves."

(Continue reading, with charts and photos, at USA Today)

PHOTO COURTESY INTERNATIONAL BIOCHAR INITIATIVE

More than 60 percent of all medicinal drugs are derived from the natural world.

Mycologist Paul Stamets is on a quest to prove that an endangered mushroom could cure smallpox, TB, and even bird flu. He believes that unlocking the secret may be as important to the future of human health as Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillium mold's antibiotic properties more than 80 years ago.

That a homely, humble fungus could fight off virulent diseases like smallpox, e coli, and TB might seem odd, until one realizes that even though the animal kingdom branched off from the fungi kingdom around 650 million years ago, humans and fungi still have nearly half of their DNA in common and are susceptible to many of the same infections.