President Obama wants US to ‘reignite its spirit of innovation’

President Obama gave his final State of the Union address on Tuesday. In it, he discussed how far the country has come over the last year and where he sees it going in the future. But beyond the expected talk of a rebuilt, stronger economy, soaring h...

‘Gene drive’ mosquitoes could end malaria once and for all

The scourge of malaria could be going away for good in some regions, thanks to a groundbreaking discovery by researchers at the Universities of California, Irvine and San Diego. Their study, published Monday in the journal PNAS, has reportedly uncove...

Investing in the Future of Medicine: In Vitro Diagnostics Market


In spite of all the advances we’ve made in medicine, people still get sick. But thankfully, we’re continuously getting better with our ability to diagnose. One clear way medicine is improving is the...

Kite Patch Keeps Mosquitoes (and the Diseases They Carry) Away

Those evil mosquitoes just keep on biting. They’re carriers of deadly diseases like dengue fever and malaria and every day, kids get bites that could turn out to be fatal. There are a lot of anti-mosquito and anti-insect lotions and sprays being sold, but they’re a cause for concern sometimes to parents who worry about slathering their kids in repellents that contain DEET.

kite mosquito patches

Then along came Kite. Kite is a patch that is supposed to be stuck on the person’s clothing. Once it’s there, it can make the wearer “invisible” to mosquitoes for up to 48 hours. Unlike most conventional mosquito repellants, Kite uses non-toxic compounds that interrupt the mosquito’s ability to find people through carbon dioxide detection.

Kite Patch1

The technology was developed by Olfactor Laboratories and the University of California with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

A project to send Kite patches to Uganda is currently up for funding on Indiegogo, and has already generated more than 3.5 times its goal with over a month left to raise funds.

[via C|NET]

Malaria Carrying Mosquitoes Attracted to Human Body Odor


Scientists may be on to something here. The real reason behind malarial mosquitoes biting human victims may be the foul body odor the human subjects emit. An experiment was carried out in which socks...