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A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

npr.org

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Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#11

Post by craftkiller »

lostlogin wrote: post #6

I’d love this for house flies.

While I don't have a remedy for house flies, I do have a remedy for fruit flies! Take a cup, fill it with 25% water, 25% monster energy drink original flavor, and leave the other 50% air. Put one small drop of soap in it. Then cover with plastic wrap and poke holes in the plastic wrap the size of pencils.

Fruit flies will be attracted to the monster, fly in expecting to land on the water's surface tension but the soap broke the surface tension so the flies end up drowning. It is surprisingly effective.

Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#12

Post by tdeck »

acdha wrote: post #3

This is great to see but also reveals some failures around patents: Intellectual Ventures patented the idea a couple decades ago, did a TED Talk, decided it wasn’t as cost-effective for malaria prevention as bednets and apparently sat on it. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123680870885500701 I wanted to buy one back then and still do, and it always seemed short-sighted that they didn’t sell them here for quality of li…

Isn't Intellectual Ventures basically a patent troll? Everything they have they sit on.

Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#14

Post by Terr_ »

craftkiller wrote: post #11
lostlogin wrote: post #6

I’d love this for house flies.

While I don't have a remedy for house flies, I do have a remedy for fruit flies! Take a cup, fill it with 25% water, 25% monster energy drink original flavor, and leave the other 50% air. Put one small drop of soap in it. Then cover with plastic wrap and poke holes in the plastic wrap the size of pencils. Fruit flies will be attracted to the monster, fly in expecting to land on the water's surface tension but the soa…

> An insect, therefore, is not afraid of gravity; it can fall without danger, and can cling to the ceiling with remarkably little trouble. It can go in for elegant and fantastic forms of support like that of the daddy-longlegs. But there is a force which is as formidable to an insect as gravitation to a mammal. This is surface tension. [...]

> An insect going for a drink is in as great danger as a man leaning out over a precipice in search of food. If it once falls into the grip of the surface tension of the water—that is to say, gets wet—it is likely to remain so until it drowns. A few insects, such as water-beetles, contrive to be unwettable; the majority keep well away from their drink by means of a long proboscis.

-- On Being The Right Size (1928) by JBS Haldane

... Though I usually quote it for what it says about a horse falling down a mineshaft.

Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#15

Post by acdha »

tdeck wrote: post #12
acdha wrote: post #3

This is great to see but also reveals some failures around patents: Intellectual Ventures patented the idea a couple decades ago, did a TED Talk, decided it wasn’t as cost-effective for malaria prevention as bednets and apparently sat on it. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123680870885500701 I wanted to buy one back then and still do, and it always seemed short-sighted that they didn’t sell them here for quality of li…

Isn't Intellectual Ventures basically a patent troll? Everything they have they sit on.

I believe the labs unit was setup specifically to change that reputation but it doesn’t appear to have shipped anything substantial.

Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#16

Post by metalman »

acdha wrote: post #3

This is great to see but also reveals some failures around patents: Intellectual Ventures patented the idea a couple decades ago, did a TED Talk, decided it wasn’t as cost-effective for malaria prevention as bednets and apparently sat on it. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123680870885500701 I wanted to buy one back then and still do, and it always seemed short-sighted that they didn’t sell them here for quality of li…

bullshit, somehow , and by any means ,the zapping of mosquitos is an idea older than our species and fits into a whole class of inventions that are waiting for a specific new technical ability to achive and are therefor unpatentable. like the idea of patent trolls convulsing and dieing when exposed to a certain musical tone, deadly to those minds that are tuned to mindless greed.

Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#19

Post by Sha1rholder »

qsera wrote: post #10
Sha1rholder wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your immune system evolves every minute with everything throwing monkey wrench to it. And it's far from perfect at all.

No, the stuff it encountered during its millions of years of evolution is not the "monkey wrench". That is its legitimate input. Those are the things that it evolved with. Those it can handle fine. And instead I meant all the stuff that is used to elicit a specific response using some incidental behavior. Those were not part of its evolutionary journey. Those it won't be able to handle and would result in un-predicta…

> That is its legitimate input.

Things that make you healthier are legitimate input, not things that are "natural". Living naturally doesn't usually mean living healthier.

From another perspective, humanity has already transformed the Earth and ourselves. Ancient mosquito-borne infectious diseases and modern ones are fundamentally different systems. The pace of "natural" species evolution lags far behind the speed at which diseases mutate under modern population densities, nor is it designed for the life expectancy and quality of modern people. Vaccines are one of humanity's best answers to this problem. I see no reason to resist them.

Re: A viral mosquito-killing laser device could be coming to the U.S.

#20

Post by qsera »

Sha1rholder wrote: post #19
qsera wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the stuff it encountered during its millions of years of evolution is not the "monkey wrench". That is its legitimate input. Those are the things that it evolved with. Those it can handle fine. And instead I meant all the stuff that is used to elicit a specific response using some incidental behavior. Those were not part of its evolutionary journey. Those it won't be able to handle and would result in un-predicta…

> That is its legitimate input. Things that make you healthier are legitimate input, not things that are "natural". Living naturally doesn't usually mean living healthier. From another perspective, humanity has already transformed the Earth and ourselves. Ancient mosquito-borne infectious diseases and modern ones are fundamentally different systems. The pace of "natural" species evolution lags far behind the speed at…

>Things that make you healthier are legitimate input, not things that are "natural".

You have no idea of what you are talking about, right?

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