Who doesn’t hate mosquitoes? For centuries humans have had to endure this pest, and we started to win the war when DDT came out. Of course DDT isn’t allowed any more, but now you can kill these little buggers with a new gadget. It’s like Star Wars technology for vampire defense. I want one, preferably with a USB port so I can watch the body count on my PC. It will probably be a few years before the digitized ghost of Billy Mays hawks one on TV though. Still, I want one.
Here’s some background from Information Week:
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the project has been dubbed “WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction.” It aims to kill mosquitoes with lasers to prevent the spread of malaria, which mosquitoes can transmit.
The anti-mosquito laser system is being funded by Intellectual Ventures, a company run by Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s former CTO.
…
Kare said that “WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction” isn’t a term used internally to refer to the project. He calls the project “the Photonic Fence.” “When we’re being lighthearted, we call it ‘the bug zapper,'” he explained.
As its name suggests, the Photonic Fence prototype consists of two posts that direct laser fire at mosquitoes that fly between them. Kare said the research team is still optimizing its targeting algorithm. “But we definitely can detect them and aim a beam at them,” he said.
When that happens, the mosquitoes literally get toasted.
From the intellectualventureslab.com website: This illustration shows one way our “photonic fence” mosquito laser system could be used to set up a perimeter defense, protecting a single building. The red “fence” shows a border that mosquitoes can’t pass through, but it is safe for everything else. There is no top coverage because mosquitoes don’t fly very high.
Here’s the videos of mosquitoes meeting a well deserved death by laser fire:
Here’s the live demonstration setup at the 2010 TED conference:
I’ll need the high frame rate camera to go with mine
Laser-armed bats!
*koff*
Or, since mosquitoes hunt by homing on our exhalations, we could just increase the atmospheric CO2 level until the li’l pests die of frustration because they can’t track us down.
I’ll go work on my Nobel acceptance speech, now…
Does it work on Trolls?
Have they thought this one through? ….. Children and small animals?
“Oy! You could have someone’s eye out with that!”
I don’t care if this would work on mosquitoes, or flies. Would it work on cockroaches? I’m talking about the big, mutant-ninja cockroaches like they have in Texas. The kind that sit on top of the water faucet in the bathroom and HISS at everything that walks in. The ones the dogs are afraid of. If it would work on them, then we have a winner.
And it doesn’t matter if this product takes out bees, as long as it is turned off during the day. Bees don’t fly at night.
I love the smell of fried mosquitoes in the morning. …. Smells like …. victory.
(With apologies to Robert Duval)
Jonah Goldberg at NRO linked to this story under the title: “Ground-Based Laser Mosquito Lancing”
Of course there was NO HAT TIP to the person who e-mailed him the link.
[snif]
I I was David Brin I’d be annoyed that I wasn’t getting the credit for this idea. He proposed it in his SF novel “Earth” IIRC. Even mentioned the “starwars -SDI” spinoff aspect.
Mind you David Brin is a lunatic warmographer as I found out from his website yesterday. I also find much of his SF unreadable.
Un
Belivable.
I perfectly remember a sleepless August night in Novgorod, Russia, in the apartment on the 6th floor of the multistory building. There was no air conditioning, and we would suffocate without opening the balcony door. Mosquitoes were coming in hordes through that door.
Same on the third floor in St. Petersburg.
Same in some multistory Mediterranean hotels.
These bugs can fly very high — maybe they evolve and acquire this ability around multistory buildings.
Always dreamed about such a contraption!!!!
If “Mosquitos don’t fly that high” then why not a block wall with a gate or chain link with a net?
Maybe it’s like the Orbitz commercial, “Why didn’t you mail the check?” “Because; we have a HOVERCRAFT”.
Why not a wall? Because; we have LASERS!
And just what will the Bats eat???? Hmmm???? This is like the idea of spreading fertilizer in the oceans, seeding the higher clouds with ash, putting a stop to emitting CO2, and all the other crackput ideas humans come up with to control mother nature.
On the up side, there are a few “carbon life forms” that I would like to photo shop onto that tray so I can fry their a**.
Oh this is practical… and safe! Just what kind of lasers will these be? I guess they’re solar powered, too?
So, let have a look at the Users Manual:
1. Clear the land of ALL vegetation and blockages (trees, shrubs, plants, weeds, fences, houses, rocks, dirt piles) and grade surface to within a 0.003% grade variation to maintain an effective line of sight between the towers.
2. Provide all occupants with protective eyewear and instruct them to always quickly walk directly to and from the structure—NEVER loiter or look directly at a laser tower. Protective ear-wear may be necessary.
3. Operate system from dawn to daylight and dusk until night (Anopheles sp. flying time). In the event of a power outage, system may require 60 minutes to reboot. As the laser light is invisible, be sure to check the functionality every 30 minutes. You know it’s working when there is a pervasive smell of burnt insects, singed animal hide, and human hair.
4. In the event of system error, malfunction or breakdown, contact our service department at the toll-free number. If no phone service is available, mail your request for service appointment or drive to nearest city. Please be aware that we will need 2 to 4 weeks to respond.
Re: Ben (Mar 5 10:27),
if they don’t make money killing mosquitoes, they can always turn up the juice and turn it into the ultimate perimeter security fence – I’m sure a fair number of government departments would just love one of those..
Anthony, thanks for entertaining us almost every day. But don’t waste time doing that if there are important climate issues to be worked on.
The pedants may well just be AGW supporters, so ignore them. Before commenting they could have checked the other comments first.
If you feel like fixing errors, I think it would be fine to acknowledge the first notification of an error and delete the rest completely so they don’t clutter the record.
roger (12:30:27) :
Does it work on Trolls?
Only flying ones.
That video reminded me of old war movies, with ME109s or Zeroes going down trailing smoke. All they needed were the right sound effects or tiny parachutes.
Scott I just spit my cocktail of cold medicine all over the screen!
Anthony, this story is good for a chuckle. Unfortunately, there is a sombre side to it. DDT was correctly banned for spraying on crops since (if I am correctly informed) its metabolite DDE concentrates in raptorial birds at the top of the food chain, leading to fragile eggshells. However, DDT spraying to combat the mosquito vector of malaria involved only spraying on the inner walls of houses. This killed or repelled mosquitos and did not involve significant outdoor DDT exposure. The stability of this compound was also beneficial in this context. But the anti-DDT crusade led to obstruction of its use in malaria control. It is estimated that tens of millions of people died as a result, mostly in that Third World that Greens are always agonising about. Eventually DDT was judged acceptable for this purpose once more. And Greens indignantly declare that they never banned DDT. Literally that is true. But they obstructed its use in other ways. Aid donors would only supply other insecticides – which didn’t work. Loans were made dependent on non-use of DDT. The whole affair is scandalous. See Apoorva Mandavilli, DDT Returns, in Nature Medicine 27 July 2006.
The lasers in DVD writers should be powerful enough to use on mosquitoes. Just need some way to aim, and to discriminate between targets.
Never mind “houseflies”, I want something to wear on my hat that snuffs those ########### black flies.
Can it tell the difference between a mosquito and Tinkerbell?
@davidmhoffer (10:51:04) ‘Funny, but the first bug actually was a bug.’
I don’t know, personally I don’t find it at all funny when people assume too much.
But sure, dude, I bet you’re the only one on this whole planet, in your mind, that read the history books. Personally I must have been too deep into the code. Now, that’s funny. :p
Leon Brozyna (12:19:25) :
“Nit pickers are out in force today.”
I would ignore the nit-pickers.
Maybe they are a part of the announced AGW assault on us?
A nitpicker seldom reads the real content of a story.
The comma’s , the spelling, footers and headers, is the important thing.
To be ignored, me thinks.
They can fly higher than the shield, but then again, how would they know to fly over it?
I imagine it would wreak havoc on my honeybees, but if it could target just mosquitos, yellowjackets, wasps, hornets, cabbage loopers, and flying ants/termites I’d be a happy happy man.
Can you imagine what would happen if it smoked a hawk??
Rick