Seriously, is there anything a
laser can't do? A team of mad scientists in Washington have concocted a system that could essentially eliminate malaria-carrying mosquitoes with lasers, and the whole thing can be built from parts sourced on eBay. The so-called mosquito laser is credited to an idea from Lowell Wood, an astrophysicist who worked with Edward Teller, the "architect of the original plan to use lasers to shield America from the rain of Soviet nuclear arms." In theory, at least, the technology could one day be used to draw a laser barrier of sorts around a village. Of course, the trick is to make the lasers powerful enough to smoke the bugs without harming humans -- any of you Earthlings up for a clinical trial or two?
[Via
eHow]
posted Mar 15th 2009 10:22AM
I'm always up for a good laser clinical.
First comment, btw
Is that a red minus button I see?
i see it too!
i'm colorblind.
clickyclickyclicky
I feel the love.
seriously.
You guys are so nice to me :-)
@i.c.: Are you positive?
No, the red button would mean he's negative.
Man, I hate when you people low-rank posts...'cause then I have to go through and hit the plus on the low ranks and the minus on everyone else. I hate the low rank crap. They make the posts so damn dim I can't read 'em!
And really, on a story like this, the jokes that get low-ranked are at least amusing...the rest of the posts, other than a few somewhat insightful ones, tend to just be filler.
yeah, i am actually
What do you mean "you people"?
Finally, all that shining laser lights into my eyes has lead to something useful!
Wouldn't a plain old "bug zapper" light be more efficient?
Bugzapper's are primarily for bugs attracted to light. Mosquitos are not attracted to light. They have those systems not with propane or carbon dioxide to attract the mosquitoes into a trap, maybe a combo gas/bug zapper would work....definitely not propane then lol
Just make sure that only the ones with malaria are targeted, and not all of them. You don't want to start affecting the bird population. I'm puzzled as to how one can accomplish such a feat.
The birds will adapt.
Birds learned not to fly into windows, they can learn to not fly into laser fences.
What about animals (like birds) that feed on mosquitoes? I suppose if they only deploy the laser "net" in populated areas, it won't matter that much.
i remember reading an article about the feasibility of eradicating mosquitoes. it said that initially there would be some effects, but things would straighten themselves out before too long (other insects would just take their place).
@ maveric101
What fairy tales have you been reading? You're talking about eradicating a MAJOR food source for birds and other animals...and everything after that will be perfectly alright? I'm learning new things about humans everyday. Latest one is arrogant ignorance.
This system would not eradicate the mosquito population in general. It would only target those mosquitoes around cities and villages, leaving a whole ton of mosquitoes living elsewhere.
I've meet environmental biology professors/teachers (I've had some of them for classes in the past) that stated eliminating mosquitoes would not harm other animals because there are so many other flying insects, that they would fill the void. So, mosquitoes remain what they always have been, disease carrying (malaria, triple E, West Nile Virus, heart worm for animals etc.) parasites that wipe out humans and animals alike with their diseases. So knowing that other flying insects are eaten by birds and could fill the void, protecting these disease carrying nightmares out of some misplaced "protection" at the expense of humans is the worse kind of arrogant ignorance I've ever seen.
I had thought of this myself. I'd been trying to make it happen for years. Sign me up for a trial.
PEW PEW PEW
I DRIVE TRUCKS AND EAT STEAKS MADE OF TRUCKS
@ Peter Moore
Umm . . . .
. . . what?
nooo, Kenny... it's BANG BANG BANG.
@teej
Nice SP reference.
Great one more chance for mosquitoes to become biologically immune to some other thing. Now it's lasers' turns. Curse you evolution.
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/06/electronic-mosquito-racket-zaps-pests-bugs/
This is one thing that they CANT get immune to! I think its the best option too =)
... oh yeah...
- LHC produced Artificial Black Holes
"Malaria-carrying mosquitoes with lasers" - Anyone else read that like "sharks with friggin lasers"
laser-carrying mosquitoes with malaria
So it should've read:
"A team of mad scientists in Washington have concocted a system that could use lasers to essentially eliminate malaria-carrying mosquitoes . . ."
. . . instead of implying that the mosquitoes were the ones with the lasers.
Good call, Darak. I didn't even notice that until you said it. Apparently, neither did Darren Murph.
"In theory, at least, the technology could one day be used to draw a laser barrier of sorts around a village"
SHIELDS UP, CAPTAIN!
but what happens if the mosquitoes reverse the polarity??
But doctor, wouldn't that cause a parabolic destabilization of the fission singularity
How can you prevent the laser from hitting your eye?
Not at all - that's what's called "collateral damage"...
Seriously, just pour the money into malaria research to develop a cure, that would be money well spent...
This brings staring at the bug zapper to a whole new level.
I don't know why, but I have thoughts that the humanity is going to destroy every creature of this world...
Awesome!
Well, you know, these mosquitoes would kill humanity if something wouldn't be done. So your choice; humanity or mosquitoes with frickin laser beams?
Well, duh. Have you seen the creatures of this world?
Seriously, somethings needs to be done about those platypuses...
We'll start with those bloody red squirrels...
Can't they just artificially increase the bat populations?
that guy is gnna make some serious $$
What? Your iPhone won't solve this problem?
If Apple will approve a laser that works off the bottom port, then yes it will indeed solve the problem!
Actually...
http://www.appshopper.com/search/?search=mosquito
Although I doubt any of those actually work ;-)