In June, I plan to travel for the first time to sub–Saharan Africa. I've never gone before because I felt so uncomfortable at the idea of being confronted with the inequalities between my lifestyle and the grinding poverty of billions in the developing world.
I'm setting the guilt aside partly as an exercise in personal development and partly to help expand The Scientist's coverage of science in the developing world, especially on the impact of new knowledge on improving the lot of the poorest of the poor. In the past few years, we have sent reporters to remote areas of Brazil, Thailand, and war-ravaged Croatia. For this issue, we sent staff writer Bob Grant to Haiti. My June visit will be to Uganda.
There has always been a core of outstanding and dedicated scientists working on tropical disease and implementing scientific advances in the field. However, relative to the scale ...
