After being starved of funds for many years, the efforts of the Gates Foundation and others have raised the stakes in the war against malaria, still a major killer, especially in Africa. This week's Nature looks at the prospects for progress. There is still no vaccine. Brendan Maher explains why, and reports on the push to develop one. Zambia is one of the hardest hit countries and in 2005 launched a plan to cut malaria incidence by 75% by 2008. Michael Hopkin reports on the work of the Malaria Institute at Macha, a centre of excellence established to bolster the national effort and to export expertise to other countries. In a Commentary, epidemiologist Mark Grabowsky stresses the importance of spending the 'new money' in the right way — on surveillance networks for example. Martin Kemp browses the notebooks of Ronald Ross, and finds more than 'just' the discovery linking malaria and the mosquito. See also the Editorial and the online malaria special on http://www.nature.com/news/specials/malaria/index.html.