When it comes to crazy things, nothing beats what Pilirani Lazaro, a 22-year-old peasant farmer from Kalaza Village in central Malawi, did recently.

It may sound stranger than fiction, but on November 21, he took a knife, went into the bush, cut off his testicles and immediately put them up for sale.

Until June this year, the only bypass I knew had to do with heart surgery. But I discovered another kind of bypass when the Mozambican government authorized the Mozal smelter to emit its fumes and dust directly into the air (bypassing filters) during four months.

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika had just returned home from New York where he had been attending a UN heads of state summit to review the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), making a detour through Havana—a city known more for its cigars than for its pies.

As is customary, he held a press conference when he touched down at Chileka International Airport and used the occasion to flay his critics for complaining that his numerous foreign trips were draining the national treasury.

Editors Blog: Knight Fellow Rachel Jones emphasizes the importance of scientists and journalists working together.

How many researchers does it take to switch on the "lightbulb" of insight about the benefits of learning to talk to reporters?

About 20. And it really helps when one of them is the lead researcher on the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Impact Study (PCVIS), Dr. Anthony Scott.

Editors Note: Knight Fellow Rachel Jones talks about the new possibilities after receiving more than $43,000 for a new Health and Science Writers' Association.When I pushed the button on an email application for a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement grant back in late April, I was thinking a lot about the direction my Knight Health Fellowship would take in the months to come.

Editors Note: Knight Fellow Edem Djokotoe investigates the fishing industry in Malawi

The future of Malawi’s agriculture could lie in the hands of people like Heinrich Sitima, a 14-year-old school boy I met during a farm visit in Chiradzulu, a rural district some 30 minutes’ drive from Blantyre. He lives with his parents on Wambeu Farm, a 10-hectare sprawl with pigs, goats, cows, fish, bananas, cabbages, tomatoes, onions and a animal feed enterprise.
   Heinrich Sitima at Wambeu Farm in Chiradzulu Heinrich wants to be a farmer when he grows up.