Interesting Snippets

Jacques-André Ndione, a researcher at the Centre de Suivi Ecologique, a government public-health agency in Dakar, Senegal, is also impressed by the power of satellite monitoring. He cites one study which showed that in west Africa malaria tends to spread faster in suburban neighbourhoods than in cities and slums. The reason, revealed by satellite, is that the suburbs have more backyard ponds and puddles. Indeed, satellites can not only count such small bodies of water, they can measure their longevity, salinity and mud content—and thus how mosquito-friendly they are