Where? South Africa
What?  To disconnect med-resistant HIV, house-call counselors for Cell-Life, a Cape Town treatment project, began arriving with specialized cell phones to report patients’ pill-popping patterns back to home base.

Where?  Russia
What?  Last October, three cosmonauts blasted into the stratosphere with HIV samples, hoping to craft a computer-calculated HIV-vaccine protein that is achievable only in weightless conditions.

Where?  Western Samoa
What?  Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, climbing toward an HIV-bashing gene in the bark of the mamala tree, agreed last fall to split all profits with the Samoans, who claim national rights to the plant.

Where?  Zimbabwe
What?  Since country women spend ample hours in hair salons, female-condom manufacturer PSI-Zimbabwe now primps local stylists to educate female patrons about the product’s benefits.

Where?  United States
What?  The National Institutes of Health coughed up $7.4 million to fund Arizona State University research into genetically altering tobacco-plant proteins to produce an HIV microbicide gel.