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POPSDiscovery of natural odors could help develop mosquito repellents "CO2 emitted in human breath is the main attractant for the Culex mosquito to find people, aiding the transmission of these deadly diseases," Ray said. "In our experiments we identified hexanol, and a related odor, butanal, as strong inhibitors of CO2-sensitive neurons in Culex mosquitoes. These compounds can now be used to guide research in developing novel repellents and masking agents that are economical and environmentally safe methods to block mosquitoes' ability to detect CO2 in our breath, thereby dramatically reducing mosquito-human contact." Woah, this is just great! This should be a great reason to celebrate, once thei're done with the repellent. I think there isn't one person in the planet who hasn't got mad with mosquitos at one time or another. Great news, just great.
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POPS'Joystick' Warfare Brings Ethics Debate--UAVs and Other Robotic Weapons Robo-warfare is making it too easy to wage arbitrary war, and is by historical standards cowardly , usually entailing overkill to achieve a limited target (like swatting mosquitos with hand grenades. Can you say "collateral damage"?). To bring no risk to warfare is to undermine the principle of Just War, where people voluntarily enter into war upon principles of justice (self defense), and risk their own lives bravely and willingly. Sending robots risks nothing, and makes unjust war a no-risk situation, and therefore too easy to begin. Also there is the danger factor where human judgment may be lacking instead of a programmed response, without the ability to correct or withdraw destructive actions. Ask the civilians in Afghanistan or Pakistan what they think of drone (Predator) UAV bombing flights so far. More civilians have been killed than 'terrorists".
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POPSBill Gates Funded Dengue Fever Breakthrough
Found in up to 60 per cent of all insects, it is harmless to humans. But it has never been found naturally in dengue fever mosquitoes. The project struggled until the Gates donation arrived. A PhD student, Conor McMeniman, used super-fine needles to inject 10,000 mosquito embryos with the bacterium. "It was very technical and tedious work," Professor O'Neill said, adding that they had shown the bacterium could halve the adult mosquito's lifespan. Once an insect was infected, the bacterium would spread via its eggs to the next generation. A pilot release of infected mosquitoes could begin in Vietnam within three years. If no problems are discovered, a full-scale biological attack against the insects could be launched within five years. "We need to make sure the bacteria won't jump into any other species," Professor O'Neill said. He said Mr Gates was aware of the team's progress. "We are very lucky to have him spending his money the way he does."
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POPSA man made "plague" to treat a plague It's a new concept, that looks very promising. pre treating the disease, by infecting the carriers, mosquitos, with a virus which is harmless for humans. Very interesting!
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POPSEverything's Bigger in Texas Wow! My daughter lives in Texas and sent me this article. I wish I could see this web! Shades of "Arachnophobia"? But it must have been beautiful and now it is helping trap millions of mosquitos. We could use that here in Costa Rica. Hemorrhagic Dengue is very bad this year. But at least we have millions of spiders spinning webs.
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POPSHouston: Hot Town, Cool City Documentary about Houston titled Hot Town, Cool City. Lots of info about Houston at the source. It's not all mosquitos and big hair and guns.
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