Nathan Myhrvold: Could This Laser Zap Malaria?

Could This Laser Zap Malaria? Nathan Myhrvold



This TED talk started with Nathan showing a container for vaccines that his company invented that can preserve a vaccine for up to six months without power instead of the typical 4 hours like the current ones do.

The talk then shifted to Malaria and how it spreads by mosquitoes. He showed another invention that has the ability to zap a mosquito out of the sky with a laser. This laser can listen to the wing beat of a mosquito and determine if it is male or female. The device will only kill the females as they are the ones that carry the Malaria virus. However, the TED demo didn't show the laser killing any mosquitoes. It only showed how the laser targeting system worked. At the end of the talk, Nathan did show a video which showed the laser blowing the mosquitoes out of the sky.

The most significant thing that I learned from the video was how many people die from Malaria. One child in Africa dies every 43 seconds from Malaria.

Intellectual Ventures
Nathan Myhrvold is the Founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures.

New York Times Article
The Mosquito laser was featured in an article on the New York Times.

The Art and Science of Cooking.
Nathan Myhrvold has also helped write a cookbook: The Art and Science of Cooking.