Australian research scientists have developed a strategy for fighting Dengue fever, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that affects more than 50 million people annually and causes fever and crippling joint and muscle pain—and in some cases even death.
Researchers are encouraged that these bacterially infected mosquitoes are safe to humans and, once set loose, are capable of spreading on their own and overtaking the wild mosquito populations that transmit disease to humans.
In two northern Australian towns, between 10,000 and 20,000 of these infected mozzies were released (“mozzie” is Australian for mosquito), and wild mosquito infection rates neared 100 percent—meaning, mosquitoes that can infect humans were almost completely replaced by the ones that can’t.
TVNL Comment: Humans have been playing a dangerous game with nature...altering it genetically. Only time will tell how much catastrophic damage we have done to life on this planet.
As rural deposits of fossil fuel grow fewer and farther between, extractive industries are increasingly siting...
Today, Laura Legere of the Times Tribune has published the first in an important two-part series...
Conservative states, business groups, fossil fuel companies, and politicians who deny the science of climate change...
