Each red blood cell is packed with about 250 million molecules of hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein that can bind to either oxygen or carbon dioxide.
Participants in these studies wear a special sensor that uses spectroscopy to measure near-infrared light absorption; you see, red blood cells absorb light differently when they're carrying a lot of oxygen.
Today, a whopping 99% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa have a specific type of a protein receptor on their red blood cells that doesn't allow the parasite to gain entry.
This would be like comparing the size of a human red blood cell to the entire island of Sicily; an incredible difference in scale that's difficult to really wrap your head around.
Now, this might not look like much, but if we were to put a red blood cell up on the screen, it'd be about that big, so these are unbelievably tiny curls.