Technology

Google’s new invention to shrink vector’s number

Google’s new invention to shrink vector’s number

It seems that the nation is preparing to make the nation mosquito free and most importantly disease free. A new release of 20 million machines have been done by teaming up with Google’s pet company Alphabet and scientists in the US  to lessen the numbers of the disease-carrying ones.According to the plans, millions of sterile male mosquitoes will be released in Fresno county in California, which will then combine with wild female mosquitoes. The eggs the females lay won’t hatch, a report in the Washington Post said.

The project, called Debug Fresno, is being undertaken by Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s holding company. Scientists said that the main aim is to cut the numbers of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes responsible for zika, dengue and chikungunya like diseases. For 20 weeks, the company plans to release a million of the sterile, non-biting male mosquitoes in two neighbourhoods in Fresno county. The male mosquitoes are bred and infected with Wolbachia, a bacterium that is naturally found in at least 40 per cent of all insect species, the report said.

Over time, the scientists  hope to see a steep decline in the presence of Aedes aegypti in these communities. In a phenomenon called cytoplasmic incompatibility, “matings between Wolbachia-infected males and uninfected females result in embryo lethality or low hatch rates”, William Sullivan and Scott L. O’Neill took to the journal. It has been said that the bacterium used to sterilise mosquitoes “is not known” to infect humans.

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Priyanka sarangi

Journalist by profession, music lover by passion. Love to write and edit content on different topics of entertainment beat. Love to travel but only with my favorite people.