Recently, scientiests discovered a bacteria called Wolbachia, that could be transferred to Mosquitoes, effectively preventing them from being able to carry Malaria. In 2010, Malaria affected 219 Million people and killed 660,000, so containing it is extremely important. The thing that makes this so much more effective than treating each person, is that if one mosquito is exposed to this bacteria, it will transfer it to the entire surrounding mosquito population and to offspring. In fact, it has been found that it stays within a mosquito with 100% infection frequency for 34 generations. Professor Xi, the one who discovered this, says that this is a very promising way to potentially cure Malaria in the future.
Nature of science themes:
-Science is based on evidence: there is evidence that this works, otherwise it wouldn't have been published on sciencedaily.com
-Science is subject to debate and tentative: these findings are very new, and we don't know at this point exactly how effective it will be in the real world. All we know at this point is that it is very effective in a labratory.
-Importance of repeatability: if this is not repeatable, it doesn't even come close to being that miracle cure for Malaria that people are hoping that this may be.
-Role of motivation and curiosity: Professor Xi would have never undergone this extensive research experiment if he wasn't interested in it in the first place. Motivation and curiosity are a the heart of all scientific progress and discovery.
Cameron Kurisko
How long would it take to contain malaria in all mosquitoes? I wonder if that is ever even possible. It is interesting to see that research is constantly taking place to try and protect humans. It would be cool to see what effect this would have on male mosquitoes, because only females transfer malaria. (http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/mosquitoes).
ReplyDeleteThis is a great discover! Many people's lives may be saved if this bacteria does go into effect.
ReplyDeleteAmy is right about the transfer of malaria; female mosquitoes can only transfer malaria, but I found that wolbachia is a bacteria that infects the reproductive system of arthropods, especially insects. Some hosts of the bacteria can't reproduce, so even if female mosquitoes can only transfer malaria, it could be good to infect both genders with the bacteria so that mosquitoes can't reproduce as fast and can't transfer malaria as much. It would be like hitting two birds with one stone!
Article used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolbachia