Every 43 seconds, an African child dies of malaria because a vaccine isn’t available or proper medical treatment is not accessible, and very little can be done to stop this plague from killing more. Spraying DDT has catastrophic environmental results, mosquito nets are not available to everyone, and an effective vaccine for malaria has yet to be created. So what happens when conventional methods for slowing the progression of disease are proving insufficient? Well, as engineers, the answer should be simple: unconventional methods (generally, the more radical and obscure, the better). Luckily, a recent speaker at TED, Nathan Myhrvold announced just such a revolutionary prospect.
To those who are lamentably unaware of TED’s existence or purpose, TED (an acronym of “Technology, Entertainment, Design”) is an annual, non-profit conference through which the best and brightest from a broad range of fields gather to share “Ideas worth spreading.” Notable speakers include Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, Bill Gates, as well as a lengthy list of Nobel Prize winners, all of whom have presented TED talks regarding issues not just in the fields of TED’s namesake, but in the arts, culture, science, business and world issues as well. Nathan Myhrvold’s talk in February of this year was about the spread of malaria in Africa, and his unusual plan to combat it.
Myhrvold began his talk with the aforementioned horrific statistic regarding African death rates, and how typical measures against the spread of infection have been unable to halt malaria’s progression. As such, he revealed his response to the growing threat: a surface-to-air mosquito death laser (and somehow, it’s even more awesome than it sounds). Several mosquito laser batteries would be placed at the perimeter of a location (for example a hospital or a school). In the event that an insect enters the general vicinity of these turrets, a low energy laser targets the insect in question while a computer measures its wing beat frequency to determine whether it is a mosquito or not. Other species who enter the laser’s line of sight remain unharmed, however, dangerous trespassing mosquitoes are prosecuted – to the full extent of the electromagnetic spectrum. If the trespasser is identified as a mosquito, a high energy laser is fired at the mosquito’s thorax, burning through and detaching its wings, sending the infectious menace into a downward tailspin to its death. With enough laser turrets, entire swarms of mosquitoes could be decimated with relative ease, causing a sudden, drastic decrease in the rate of malaria progression in Africa.
This sort of radical and inventive genius makes me respect the engineering profession beyond measure. Conventional methods were either ineffective or environmentally devastating, so a device was conceived to solve a global issue while using technology from science-fiction (I will admit to a slight bias, the fact that lasers are used to combat epidemics in Africa has deeply endeared me to this machine). And, despite its complicated operation, the turret can be constructed out of items bought on eBay (such as the lasers from BluRay players) without too extraordinary of a cost, a cost that would be reduced if such devices were built en masse. As such, I’d certainly chip in money for a few lasers for Africa. Well, maybe one for me too, these bites are really itchy.
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