Search for the missing million

Parsons working with younger Vietnamese scientists on the identification efforts at the Institute of Biotechnology of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, in Hanoi. — Linh Pham/The New York Times

THE tombstones said “unknown martyr”. The bones were decades old and covered in reddish mud, staining the white lab coats of a half-dozen visiting scientists.

“This tooth good?” asked a junior researcher, holding up a jawbone pulled from a grave.