How to Scale Shistasimias Water Access Points

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This approach kills loads of birds with one stone. We were trying to identify an intervention that would have multiple wins. Do you see this being sustainable in the sense that people will carry on doing it? Yes, we hope that it is sustainable. What are your plans for scaling? Yeah, great question. So what we've done is we've flown drones over about 40 different villages across the seasons now. That way we can essentially map where the different species of aquatic vegetation are in these water access points. And then we're linking that information with satellite imagery of these waterAccess points. It sounds like you've got infectious disease control, better access to food and water, poverty, alleviation,

In this episode:

00:45 A sustainable solution for schistosomiasis control

Schistosomiasis is a serious parasitic disease that affects millions of people, who become infected when they come into contact with contaminated water. To prevent the spread and reinfection of this disease, researchers trialled an environmental intervention that removed plants from lakes in Senegal. These plants act as food for freshwater snails – intermediate hosts for the disease. Results showed that this reduced disease levels, and that the plants could be composted to increase agricultural yields, suggesting this approach could be used to improve health and the economy.

Research article: Rohr et al.

News and Views: A sustainable way to control the parasitic disease schistosomiasis

12:03 Research Highlights

How artificial intelligence can predict the art that people will find memorable, and the protein-based, shock-absorbing gel that can stop projectiles in their tracks.

Research Highlight: Memorable artworks are easy to predict

Research Highlight: Supersonic ‘bullets’ are softly captured by a protein gel

14:52 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, an update on Chandrayaan-3, India’s latest attempt to land a craft on the Moon - and birds that use anti-bird spikes to build nests.

Nature News: India's Moon lander successfully launches — but biggest challenge lies ahead

The Guardian: Crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build nests, researchers find

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