Scientists Create Sperm-Free Mosquitoes to Prevent Malaria
The Only Good Mosquito? PlaneMad Scientists hard at work at eradicating malaria have often focused on the malaria-carrying mosquito, creating solutions ranging from genetic modification to malaria-attacking fungi to stinky sock lures (and about a billion more). The latest is a radiation treatment that effectively makes some male mosquitoes sterile--which, due to the particular mating habits of these mosquitoes, could have a drastic effect on mosquito populations. Female mosquitoes mate only once in a lifetime, and then store the male's sperm to be used as needed throughout the rest of her life. What's important about the new findings, which appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, is the discovery that the females do not seem to distinguish between sterilized males and fertile males--they mate only once, either way. A process that can sterilize males would thus result in a pretty serious decrease in the number of new...