This laser gun zaps mosquitoes

(Credit: ariadna)

With news of a new kind of dengue emerging in Singapore, this sounds like a job for...a mosquito laser zapper! Punnily dubbed a "weapon of mosquito destruction" (WMD), scientists are finally declaring a Cold War against malaria and all mosquito-related ailments.

This particular one appears to take a Death Star leaf out of the "Star War" book, with the laser designed to detect the audio frequency of beating wings, zero in on the culprit, and burn it on the spot. The good news is the WMD will be capable of sweeping an entire area or village and "toast(ing) millions of mosquitoes in a few minutes", physicist and project lead scientist Dr. Jordin Kare told CNN.

Intellectual Ventures, a company founded by former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold, commissioned the research.

Now all we need is a home version that we can set up to fry those miniscule terrorists before they can infect any loved ones around.

(Via Crave Asia)

[tipoo_]

This could be great for places with high rates of malaria or other mosquito related deseases, but what about cost? It might cost less for everyone in the villages to get mosquito nets, after all.

[myles taylor]

That's just the start. Soon they will be bigger and be able to pick lasers out of the air.

[Aedes_aegypti]

As an FYI the image you have is not a mosquito. It is a harmless crane fly that does not consume blood, and thus does not transmit malaria, dengue, or any other vector-borne disease. Also there are so many problems with this idea I don't even know where to start (breeding sites, non-target mosquito species, resting mosquitoes, accidentally burning people's eyes out in the crossfire, etc).

[stepforth]

FYI that isn't actually a picture of any mosquito that I know (original http://tinyurl.com/cd7pcl). It is actually a Crane Fly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

Othwerwise, great article and I do believe Tim the Toolman Taylor would be green with envy over this gadget. I know I am!! I can't wait to grab one in the local hardware store ;-)

[ironsmithfe]

The crane fly evolved to disguise itself as a mosquito and has ridden millions of years on the backs of misquotes, now that same adaptation that has allowed it to exist so long will be a genetic flaw. Now that is irony :).

Computers equipped with HD microphones can detect very minute differences in frequency and intensity, I'm sure that the crane flies have little to worry about if it is implemented properly. Even if it isn't done properly the crane fly is not going to go extinct anymore than the misquotes will (and they wont).

[Eauboy]

I would pay one google-zillion dollars for the home version.

Shame on "ariadna" from Barcelona for perpetuating this myth!

[c|net Reader]

As much as I don't want folks to get dengue, etc., I wonder about the wisdom of such radical termination. Usually, when mankind tries to exterminate some pesky creature, the ramifications on the ecosystem are unexpected, extensive, and even catastrophic. Consider the amazingly interwoven dependencies on a single Brazilnut tree.