Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds • Hacker News Board

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#11

Post by imglorp » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 3:59 PM UTC

danblick wrote: post #9

Poppycock. It is widely known that miasmas such as chicken odour are the source of disease, not a cure. In fact even the name "malaria" means "bad air" for this reason. """ For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mist from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make th…

Oh, this also explains something else!

If the Earth's surface was curved, clearly all the miasmas would just roll downhill away from us and we wouldn't have any disease. Therefore, the Earth is flat. I love how science explains everything!

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#12

Post by zentiggr » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:07 PM UTC

With all due respect to the 'use the existing headline' convention, a minor edit to this Yoda-style instance would dramatically decrease misunderstanding of the article topic.

(While I enjoy hearing British English most of the time this commaless reversing tends to drive me a little nuts.)

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#13

Post by PhasmaFelis » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #10

danblick wrote: post #9

Poppycock. It is widely known that miasmas such as chicken odour are the source of disease, not a cure. In fact even the name "malaria" means "bad air" for this reason. """ For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mist from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make th…

I actually really love miasma theory- as fundamentally incorrect as it is, it gets a lot right.

That and Lamarckian evolution. They're actually pretty good examples of early science--they fit a lot of the facts as they were known at the time.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#14

Post by dang » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

mrob wrote: post #2

A better title would be "repels malaria mosquitoes".

Every once in a while somebody aces the ever-popular genre of title complaint by suggesting a better one. Thanks!

The rest of you may have a comma as well. :)

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#15

Post by Aelinsaar » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 4:53 PM UTC

danblick wrote: post #9

Poppycock. It is widely known that miasmas such as chicken odour are the source of disease, not a cure. In fact even the name "malaria" means "bad air" for this reason. """ For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mist from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make th…

Nonsense! Anyone knows that the miasmas are best dispersed with two good fires, and the constant use of tobacco smoking! Even the very small children should they be able, must smoke. Why in Oxford all students must, on pains of a good thrashing.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#16

Post by eric-hu » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:31 PM UTC

danblick wrote: post #9

Poppycock. It is widely known that miasmas such as chicken odour are the source of disease, not a cure. In fact even the name "malaria" means "bad air" for this reason. """ For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mist from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make th…

Is this meant to be satire?

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#17

Post by runeks » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:52 PM UTC

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damage them, they will eventually learn that it's unharmful, and it will no longer be effective.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v502/n7472/full/nature1...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthranilate-based_insect_re...

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#18

Post by cronjobber » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

> the compounds from the smell of the chicken can be extracted and could work as a repellent

Might actually work as long as only a statistically insignificant minority of ppl is using it. After that point, it's Darwin all over again.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#19

Post by mrfusion » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 6:07 PM UTC

cronjobber wrote: post #18

> the compounds from the smell of the chicken can be extracted and could work as a repellent Might actually work as long as only a statistically insignificant minority of ppl is using it. After that point, it's Darwin all over again.

You might be right. But if we got mosquito bites low enough for even a short time it might bring the maleria infection rate to below one and wipe it out.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#20

Post by cowpewter » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 6:41 PM UTC

Are chickens a significant predator of mosquitoes or mosquito larvae? That would make a lot of sense. Or maybe some other bird that chickens happen to have a smell in common with.