When it comes to Malaria, a disease that still kills over one million people every year, mosquitoes are usually our worst enemies. When the mosquitoes suck the blood of an infected host, plasmodium, a protozoan, passes into its blood. The insects act as a carrier of the disease - allowing bacteria to pass into their next victim when they go for their next meal. The malarial parasites use the mosquitoes not only as a vector for spreading infection, but also as a growth chamber, maturing inside the mosquitoes gut.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. This issue is devoted to the very big; our authors guide us into realms ranging from the environment to the search for dark energy. Whilst pollution indexes globally provide figures on net air pollution levels, Wagner et. al. have investigated the composition of that pollution and the effect of weather conditions in Claremont, California. They conclude that the one factor which significantly affects pollution levels is wind speed. Interestingly, other weather factors like temperature and humidity do not play as crucial a role.

Research into the way humans perceive and interact with digital media and information can bring useful insights in our increasingly digital age. In a pair of papers by students involved in the Rhode Island REU, we see that such an endeavor yields both interesting and valuable results.