The Future is Now: Scientists Build Anti-Mosquito Laser
I've wanted this to be developed for a long time. From Physorg:
(PhysOrg.com) -- In an effort to prevent the spread of malaria, scientists have built a laser that shoots and kills mosquitoes. Malaria, which is caused by a parasite and transmitted by mosquitoes, kills about 1 million people every year.
The anti-mosquito laser was originally introduced by astrophysicist Lowell Wood in the early 1980s, but the idea never took off. More recently, former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold revived the laser idea when Bill Gates asked him to explore new ways of combating malaria.
Now, astrophysicist Jordin Kare from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Wood, Myhrvold, and other experts have developed a handheld laser that can locate individual mosquitoes and kill them one by one. The developers hope that the technology might be used to create a laser barrier around a house or village that could kill or blind the insects. Alternatively, flying drones equipped with anti-mosquito lasers could track the insects with radar and then sweep the sky with the laser.
The researchers are tuning the strength of the laser so that it kills mosquitoes without harming other insects or, especially, people. The system can even distinguish between males and females by the frequency of their wing movements, which may be important since only females spread the parasite.
Question: would it be really so bad if we made mosquitos go extinct? Or tsetse flies, an organism that sounds like it came right out of Hell?
March 16th, 2009 - 13:33
Mosquitos as far as I don’t know don’t polinate useful/worthwhile/interesting plants,
screw them, kill it with lasers or fire.
March 16th, 2009 - 13:47
sweet…
March 16th, 2009 - 13:51
I would love to have one of these to play with!
March 16th, 2009 - 14:18
Brilliant! I’d be wary of making anything extinct, but a cheap device one could easily carry around (e.g. when hiking) would be really useful.
March 16th, 2009 - 14:52
I think I read a proposal some time ago for a MEMS laser system that would seal windows from flying insects, while allowing breezes and other objects through. I would think that the sill being covered with dead bugs would be a turn off, but that could be dealt with by clever sill design. (or seriously overpowering the laser, I guess).
I’ve got no problem annihilating species, though.
March 16th, 2009 - 15:56
I think there was a science fiction story once were the human race was being judged for its continued survival. The other animal species were polled to find anyone willing to vouch for us. The two that favoured us were the dog and the mosquito.
Further, from memory there was a scene in one of David Zindell’s Neverness books where lasers were used for insect control at an outdoor party.
March 16th, 2009 - 17:50
Actually, it’s better: only Anopheles mosquitoes spread malaria. No need to wipe out the whole family – although it’s still attractive.
March 17th, 2009 - 00:58
Actually we don’t know enough about the exact ecological role of mosquitos in order to make accurate predictions about the impact on the ecosystems in question…
I am beginning to notice a patterin in my posts… I take it back, let’s wipe the suckers out and see what happens.
Probably we should do it while we stil can. When global warming kicks in fullscale it will be transforming today’s permafrost into permaswamp. At the same time it will eliminate frosty winters that keep the suckers at bay in moderate climates… We are basically creating mosquito heaven in all of the northern hemisphere. So let’s get them, as long as we can. Before megaswarms of bloodsuckers start blotting out the sun….
March 17th, 2009 - 04:36
It has been a future milestone for me. Like the cancer treatment or the Moon or the Mars landing.
The Moon landing happened when I was 10, the cancer treatment is still in the future, the Mars landing I don’t see to happen any more.
The laser defence against mosquitoes is one of the last futuristic things I wait for and which should come before the Singularity.
Great!
March 17th, 2009 - 08:07
Not to rabble-rouse, but with the global cryosphere on the uptick, exactly when will that be happening? I get so many conflicting reports on the matter.
March 17th, 2009 - 10:51
Unfortunately, the best way to deal with malaria is with DDT, which has been vilified. Hence, while DDT would be more cost and act effective, the laser idea does sound pretty cool.
March 17th, 2009 - 14:11
Ironically, there have been several studies which have shown that DDT is not as persistent in the ecology as was once believed to be the case. Many third-world nations have been using it all-along; it still is used in Florida and actually parts of California as well.
Curious, ain’t it?
March 17th, 2009 - 17:02
This will come in handy when have to fight tiny poisonous flying robotic insects.
March 18th, 2009 - 14:25
Yeah, this is really cool. Zap the disease-carriers (Malaria, Yellow-Fever), as Nasty Beasts Indeed is quite correct, few if any species of mosquito play any pollinization/fertilization role(s) of any sort. So at least the disease-carrying ones should be annihilated. IConrad is correct, however, that, on the one hand, DDT breaks-down into more-or-less harmless chemical constituents faster and more readily than we once thought. And, of course, in the short run (at least), it would indeed be more cost-effective. But, on the other hand, (and at the risk of sounding like a RachelCarsonesque Chicken Little), DDT **does** have detrimental (sometimes devastating) effects on many bird and reptile species reproduction. So if this laser thing can be made cost-effective and fairly inexpensive, then I’d favor a mixed use of the two (DDT and lasers, that is), with specific applications and ratios of one to another being determined (as best this can be, as it ain’t perfect) by ecological cost-benefit analysis (as, surely, the lasers might also have so detrimental ecological impace occasionally, depending on how they’re deployed).
But this *is* encouraging as a possible alternative to DDT in some contexts. Plus, Jim Moore is spot-on in his observation that this laser tech can be deployed against nasty flying insectoid nanobots released, say, by Dr. Doom, or Kim Jong Il, or you-name-the-shithead… ;)
September 28th, 2010 - 02:29
“bmcbrewer has said it all .but my apinion is that we are using way to many chemicals world wide. and the introdution of forien spiecies has got to be a factor to !!! i live in fla and we got cuban lizards out the ying yang. thats where all are bugs are going .probly why the birds are having a hard time of it .no bugs no birds. but the bees?probly something in coke products.properly soda in general you know all them empties throwed around and all.”