Mercifully for the members of the El Reg Quid-A-Day Nosh Posse, who have for the last few years suffered an annual five days of dietary privation as they attempted to subsist on £1 per day for food, the Live Below the Line challenge has been suspended until 2017. So, we're spared a diet of chickpea stew, and readers are spared …

This year’s Nobel Prize award has its roots in Chairman Mao’s secret plan to systematise Chinese medicine. Half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to 83 year old Youyou Tu of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing for her work in counteracting malaria, proving the properties of Chinese herbal …

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation has been buying Viagra, in a good cause: it seems to help beat one of the common malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum. The mechanism is even analogous to Viagra's better-known effect: it makes infected red blood cells stiffer, which marks them down to be cleaned out by the spleen. As …

We're pleased to report that El Reg Quid-A-Day Nosh Posse member and 2014 Live Below the Line veteran Toby Sibley has resurfaced, fuelled by a vastly superior diet to that which saw him subsist on a meagre 780 calories per day last year. Toby did the challenge in the immediate run-up to his getting hitched to Rosalind Griffin …

The El Reg Quid-A-Day Nosh Posse has attracted two last minute members for the 2015 Live Below the Line challenge, and we're delighted to welcome back on board 2014 participant Toby Sibley, who's joined by his better half Ros Griffin. Readers who followed last year's budget nosh entertainment will recall that Toby survived on …

A team of scientists and engineers is asking for the public's help to fund a robot designed to dissect mosquitos and industrialize the production of the first vaccine for one of mankind's deadliest diseases. The robot prototype, dubbed SpoRobot, is designed to cut the saliva glands out of mosquitos that are infected with the …

The El Reg Quid-A-Day Nosh Posse has entered the final furlong, with less than 24 hours to go before members can enjoy something considerably more substantial than the meagre rations which have sustained them since Monday. And as the finish line comes into view, the effects of the Live Below the Line challenge - to exist on …

It's been an entertaining week so far for the El Reg Quid-a-Day Nosh Posse, as team members battle to survive on just £1 per day for food as part of the Live Below the Line challenge. Calorific intake concerns aside, we've managed to knock up a few decent meals, and even forage a bit of extra nutrition. Of course, living for …

It's day two of the El Reg Quid-a-Day Nosh Posse's Live Below the Line challenge, so let's see how our intrepid members are getting along on just £1 per day for food. First up, we haven't had a chance yet to consider Chris Winpenny's complete cornucopious stockpile, some of which we've already seen... Chris's initial stash of …

Pics It's day one of the El Reg Quid-A-Day Nosh Posse's attempt to survive for five days on a fiver for food in support of Malaria No More UK. I have no doubt our elite team is rising magnificently to the challenge, having prepared their cunning survival plans well in advance. While I await news of how it's going, here's some of my …

Microsoft mogul turned global healer Bill Gates has had some harsh words for Mark Zuckerberg's plan to improve humanity's lot by expanding internet access into the developing world. In August, Facebook supremo Zuckerberg published an extended screed [PDF] online in which he described the need to get everyone in the world …

It's been a tough winter here in the mountains of central Spain, so Mother Nature isn't lending much of a hand as I attempt to sustain myself spending just £1 a day for nosh in the "Live Below the Line" challenge. As many readers have pointed out, I should be able to venture forth into the countryside in search of free …

As of next Monday, this hack will live for five days with just £1 a day to spend on food, having rather recklessly signed up for the "Live Below the Line" challenge. Inspired by the news that Ben Affleck will starve himself for charity - and also we presume in penance for his part in cinematic outrage Pearl Harbor - I decided …

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $1m grant to an astrophysicist developing a laser-based solution to a decidedly terrestrial problem: malaria-spreading mosquitoes. "I wanted to apply my astrophysics, optics, laser expertise towards some humanitarian goal that can help people," says Columbia University …

A team of UK and American scientists say that - assuming global warming proceeds in line with mainstream expectation - there is no reason to fear a global malaria outbreak. It is often suggested that global warming might lead to a reappearance of the deadly disease in areas where it has been wiped out, and that it might spread …

The UN Special Envoy for Malaria has released the names of his Social Media Group who have promised to do their bit to keep malaria prevention programmes in the public eye. Joining the group shouldn't be too much of a burden - members are asked to send one malaria-relevant tweet, or Facebook entry, every month for a year. …

Irish charity Concern Worldwide has received a $41m (£25m) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The money will be spent over five years in six countries on child and maternal health projects. India, Malawi and Sierra Leone are the first three, the others will be chosen shortly. The money will try and find what …

Here on the Reg raygun desk, we like a deadly laser cannon designed to rid the skies of airborne assailants as much as the next man - indeed, perhaps rather more so. On some days our simple pleasure is spoiled, however, by the thought that humanity is merely wasting its resources on engines of destruction, and doing little to …