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What an elegant solution to malaria problem. My only fear is that mosquitoes will adapt to this minor change.
by Ygg2 12y ago
What an elegant solution to malaria problem. My only fear is that mosquitoes will adapt to this minor change.
- grinich 12y agoI'm not sure if that would happen. It's a natural adaptation to only breed in still water. If mosquitos evolved from that, we would have much bigger problems than just malaria.
- Snail_Commando 12y agoIt would likely be deployed only near human settlements, which cover a relatively small portion of Earth's land surface area. Mosquitos would still be able to breed unabated in, say, protected land in the United States and Canada. Not that it takes away from your concern, which is valid. It is possible that ubiquitous deployment of this device could select for more resilient phenotypes on human-observable timelines (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution)
- sambeau 12y agoIf these are deployed in high population areas they are also being deployed in high-malaria areas. If you treat those with malaria while preventing mosquitos from reproducing you would hope that you would prevent the spread of malaria to those areas with low populations where mosquitos are left to reproduce. The goal, after all, is to wipe out malaria — not necessarily to wipe out mosquitos.