Nathan Myhrvold: Could this laser zap malaria?

http://www.ted.com Nathan Myhrvold and team's latest inventions -- as brilliant as they are bold -- remind us that the world needs wild creativity to tackle big problems like malaria. And just as that idea sinks in, he rolls out a live demo of a new, mosquito-zapping gizmo you have to see to believe.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Nathan
• Myhrvold
• TEDTalks
• TED
• talks
• mosquito
• laser
• device
• invention
• Intellectual
• Ventures
• patent
• disease
• poverty
• immunization
• Death
• Star
• malaria
• weapon

[yaHARmeMATEY]

this is the most awsome solution to any problem this planet has ever had

[Floor500]

Yes, very nice, but I'm sure it will lead to evolution of transparent or highly reflective mosquitos

[crudhousefull]

Something tells me that this will fuck a lot of shit up if it gets mass produced

[andreeaweed]

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

[bxchicano]

Die slow you fucking mosquitoes.

[sappiou]

put that laser in a satelite and shoot them from space... all over the world, maybe we can get some sleep without slapping my face every once and a while :p

[Dimefan91]

@Mr1234tico Yeah, even Reagan tried to make that Star Wars laser program to shoot down missiles from space

[Mr1234tico]

@Dimefan91 i think people have thought of that for long time, its just making it cost effective

[Jotto999]

Awesome! This is seriously friggin' cool. Dealing with the malaria problem by firing short bursts of lazers with computer tracking...holy crap, that is awesome.

[Dimefan91]

Oh no, how long will it take before someone says "Hmm, I wonder if we could use that to shoot down enemy planes or groups of enemy ground troops or protesters?"

[SEThatered]

That would be so awesome:

open air picnic and the only sound is lazer pew pew pew popping mosquitoes...

...\\//

***/'\°'° =======<[HHH]

(^mosquitoe)......(^lazor)