Yes, that's billion with a b. The good people at the World Mosquito Program have a vision for the future of our world and it involves the mass production of mosquitoes on a previously impossible scale.
Nature reports that the WMP's new facility will produce the mosquitoes and release them into urban areas in Brazil over the next 10 years. These modified mosquitoes carry the Wolbachia pipientis bacterium which prevents them from transmitting viruses. The plan is that these mosquitoes will breed with wild mosquitoes. Over time, the enhanced mosquito population will reduce the infection rate for dengue, which infects 2 million people in Brazil every year.
-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: James Gathany
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Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
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That sounds great but people are gonna be so damn itchy
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