(SOUNDBITE OF LASER ZAPPING)
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Picture this - a device about the size of a sprinkler head, shooting out a thin beam of light and zapping mosquitoes right out of the air.
(SOUNDBITE OF LASER ZAPPING)
RASCOE: Bye-bye, bug. You're done biting me (laughter). Well, last summer, the Chinese company Photon Matrix unveiled a laser prototype designed to target mosquitoes in flight. In a video posted to TikTok, the device kills mosquito after mosquito, each one disappearing in a tiny puff of smoke. Ross Anderson looked into the mosquito laser for The Atlantic and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.
ROSS ANDERSON: Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: All right, so when did you first see this video, and what was your reaction?
ANDERSON: I feel like I was late-night doomscrolling, and I was riveted because I'm one of these people - I don't know if you're like this too, Ayesha - where mosquitoes just love me. Like, they will come for me. And so I had to check into this.
RASCOE: You have the sweet blood that they want. Yeah (laughter).
ANDERSON: Yeah. (Laughter) That's right.
RASCOE: From your reporting, we know that this type of laser isn't a Chinese invention. Like, what's the story there?
ANDERSON: Yeah, this is actually an American invention. It was first dreamed up in the aughts when Bill Gates had kind of convened a group together to think about different ways to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes. But it never really got off the ground.
RASCOE: OK, so the Chinese inventors come in. How much would one of these models cost? And what do they do? They're on a much smaller scale.
ANDERSON: They are. Theirs only has, like, a 6-meter range. I don't think it could make a meaningful dent in your backyard mosquitoes. Like, maybe you could have it by your barbecue on a hot summer day. The Chinese model costs around $638, but they're not shipping them yet. They're not even in production.
RASCOE: Is this model, like, safe around, like, humans and pets? Like, do we have to worry about the lasers?
ANDERSON: What they claim is that it specifically recognizes mosquitoes, both by their size and the cadence of their wings. What they say is that, like, something as large as a person or a cat or a dog or even, like, a hummingbird, it's not going to shoot its little laser. You know, if it hit you in the arm, it's not going to do anything serious.
RASCOE: There are a lot of insects and bugs that we may like. Would there be a concern there? Like, they would get the fireflies or the - you know, maybe a butterfly (laughter), you know?
ANDERSON: Well, you know, Ayesha, in every war, there's collateral damage.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
ANDERSON: No (Laughter). What they say is that, like, mosquitoes have a very specific wing beat and that all of our fireflies and lightning bugs and butterflies will be safe.
RASCOE: But right now, it seems like a lot of this is still speculative.
ANDERSON: Even though they're still speculative, it's on us, Ayesha, to use our national platforms - our great magazine and your great show - to push for the development of this technology that we all need very bad.
RASCOE: I'm sure that people want to get rid of mosquitoes in general. Are there other high-tech methods that you're aware of?
ANDERSON: Yeah. And also I just want to pause and say they're also, like, really deadly, right? They're the most dangerous animal to humans in the world. But yes, there are special fish that you can put in a pond that would, like, specifically target mosquito larva. Really, more recently, a bunch of teams around the world have been developing genetically engineered mosquitoes that will come in and mate with the local population and produce offspring that either can't bite or can't mate. And in the laboratory, at least, they've brought some populations, like, crashing down inside of, you know, a few weeks.
RASCOE: And it would be good to have them - they can't bite or mate.
ANDERSON: That's right.
RASCOE: They can't...
ANDERSON: It's the last ones.
RASCOE: Just get...
ANDERSON: They just slowly starve, you know (laughter)?
RASCOE: Yeah, they're the last ones (laughter). They just go.
ANDERSON: Sorry (laughter).
RASCOE: That would be the ideal. But as much as we hate the mosquitoes, will it turn out if we kill them, we really needed them, you know, for something?
ANDERSON: There certainly are birds and larger insects that feed on them, but in most ecosystems, like, there are other kind of prey that can fill that niche. I also heard that whenever you have virus carriers like this, that also plays a role in, like, remixing DNA across species, and so that maybe they're kind of adding to, like, sort of the aggregate natural creativity inside ecosystems. But I'm not sold on that. I'd need to see more evidence. The burden of proof is on the mosquito lovers to show that they're really ecologically necessary.
RASCOE: That's Ross Anderson, staff writer at The Atlantic. Thank you so much for joining us.
ANDERSON: Thanks for having me on, Ayesha. It was a blast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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