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A 20-million-year-old bat fly was discovered in a mine in the Dominican Republic, the first fossilized fly of its type ever found. Its descendants are still around, sucking blood from modern bats, but scientists did not know how far back these parasites existed. But what’s even more enlightening is that this fly carried an ancient strain of bat malaria, of a species new to science. George Poinar, Jr. of Oregon State University found the fly, and also found the malaria while examining the fly under a microscope.
Before he became a specialist in ancient diseases inside equally ancient bugs, Poinar had worked on attempting to extract DNA from insects trapped in amber—work which author Michael Crichton has acknowledged as part of his inspiration for Jurassic Park.
But no ancient bats will be reconstructed from this specimen, even if it were possible.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Poinar said, “this specimen is so rare that we wouldn’t want to attempt to try it.”
Read more about the bat fly at National Geographic News. Link
After one of his college roommates succumbed to the disease during a trip to Africa, Szabolcs Márka became concerned about the impact of malaria on the peoples of that continent. Now a physicist at Columbia University, Márka has been using his expertise to develop a means of combating that plight. He’s using lasers to restrict the movements of disease-carrying mosquitoes:
“People concentrate more on studying mosquitoes’ olfactory or chemical sensors, but light or heat seemed like an interesting area,” he says. “Overloading, damaging or confusing this sensory system can prevent mosquitoes from reaching their prey.”
On a recent day in his lab in Pupin Hall, Márka placed mosquitoes in a test chamber through which he and his team shot an infrared light ray. The mosquitoes, unaware of the barrier, flew toward it but stopped and turned back upon reaching it.
Márka hopes that his research will someday lead to the development of an effective laser-based mosquito barrier that can be used in regions of the world heavily afflicted by malaria.
Link (warning: self-starting video) -via Ace of Spades HQ | Image: Columbia University
Medical researchers have discovered that an inexpensive deworming pill that has been used in Africa for more than 25 years can kill mosquitoes. The medicine, known as ivermectin, is effective for only a month. So it’s necessary for everyone in a region to take it at the same time. But when administered that way, the incidence of malaria can drop by 80%:
They vacuumed mosquitoes from the walls of huts in three villages whose inhabitants had recently been given ivermectin and three whose had not, and tested to see how many mosquitoes contained malaria parasites.
The ivermectin villages had almost 80 percent fewer.
The drug was shortening the mosquitoes’ lives, explained the lead author, Brian D. Foy, a Colorado State mosquito expert. Only older insects transmit malaria, since they must get it from humans first.
Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo by Flickr user wild_turkey5300 used under Creative Commons license
Scientists at the University of Arizona have created mosquitoes that are completely safe from the parasite that causes malaria. It does so by reducing the lifespan of the engineered mosquitoes. Most mosquitoes live only two to three weeks, but the parasite needs twelve to sixteen days to develop inside a mosquito. Consequently, these mosquitoes don’t live long enough to become dangerous.
So with that problem solved, how can scientists use the new mosquitoes to destroy malaria? At Popular Science, Laurie J. Schmidt explains:
According to Riehle, completely eradicating the malaria parasite carried by mosquitoes requires three things: the ability to engineer the mosquito, finding genes or molecules that can kill the malaria parasite, and giving the modified mosquitoes a competitive advantage so they can replace the wild population. The first two components have been accomplished, but Riehle says the third represents a bigger hurdle. “A lot of research is being done now to give the mosquitoes fitness advantages so that they can replace the wild populations,” he said. “But it’s probably at least a decade away, and if this is ever used for malaria control it will take several years for population replacement to actually occur.”
Link | Photo by John Tann used under Creative Commons license | Malaria Vaccine Spread Through Mosquitoes Themselves
King Tut may have brought the image of splendor and wealth to your mind, but the reality was far grimmer for the Egyptian boy king:
The report is the first DNA study ever conducted with ancient Egyptian royal mummies. It apparently solves several mysteries surrounding King Tut, including how he died and who his parents were.
"He was not a very strong pharaoh. He was not riding the chariots," said study team member Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at Germany’s University of Tübingen. "Picture instead a frail, weak boy who had a bit of a club foot and who needed a cane to walk."
Regarding the revelation that King Tut’s mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, "Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase," he said.
Oh, and he’s got malaria too: Link (Photo: Kenneth Garrett/National Geographic) – via Boing Boing
Medical researchers are developing an innovative way of delivering malaria vaccine:
In a daring experiment in Europe, scientists used mosquitoes as flying needles to deliver a “vaccine” of live malaria parasites through their bites. The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated comparison group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later.
Link via Instapundit
As an assignment, Professor Daniel Fletcher of the University of California at Berkeley instructed students to build a functional microscope from a cell phone and a few lenses. When they completed the project, Fletcher and his students realized that they had a useful product, which they named the Cellscope. They hope to use the instrument in impoverished areas of the world where malaria, sickle-cell anemia, and tuberculosis are widespread. In such places, large numbers of microscopes are necessary for diagnosis, but remain very expensive. The Cellscope can be a cheaper alternative to fit this need.
Astrophysicist Lowell Wood worked on the hydrogen bomb and Ronald Reagan’s "Star Wars" defense system to protect the US from Soviet missiles using lasers.
Now, Wood and colleagues at Intellectual Ventures have a plan to protect mankind from a far worse enemy, the mosquito. Behold, a "mosquito flashlight" that knock out the bug’s eye-like sensor:
On the shelf were five Maglite flashlights, a zoom lens from a 35mm camera, and the laser itself — a little black box with an assortment of small lenses and mirrors. On the floor below sat a Dell personal computer that is the laser’s brain.
A mosquito hovers into view. Suddenly, it bursts into flame. A thin plume of smoke rises as the mosquito falls. At the bottom of the screen, the carcass smolders.
Not only can the laser target a mosquito, it can also tell a male from a female based on wing-beat.
From the Upcoming 
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