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The Most Dangerous Animal On Earth

 

 

 

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I’ll be away from my desk for the next few days as I travel to St. Augustine beach for some R&R and to attend a lecture at The Whitney Laboratory For Marine Bioscience, a research institute of the University of Florida.

 

The lecture is "The most dangerous animal on earth, the special biology of the mosquito" by Paul Linser, Ph.D., Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida – will be given tomorrow night (May 12th).

 

Mosquito larvae, unlike almost all other species which have an acidic digestive system, have one that is alkaline.   That unusual characteristic opens up some interesting possibilities.  

 

This from Paul’s Whitney Lab webpage:

 

What if . . . we were able to develop new generations of insecticides that are able to target the alkaline conditions of the mosquito larvae digestive system? These new insecticides would kill mosquito larvae but leave other insects, fish and humans unaffected.

 

If you happen to be in the St. Augustine area tomorrow, the lecture is free and open to the public. For more on the Whitney Laboratory and Paul’s research, you may wish to visit their Youtube site.

 

In the following short video, Paul describes his research.

I’ve met Paul a couple of times in his capacity as a local musician, but this will be my first opportunity to attend one of his lectures.   I’m looking forward to it.

 

I’ll have my laptop with me while I’m away, and so I may be able to get a few short blogs in over the next couple of days.

 

But offerings will likely be lean until I return on Sunday while attend this lecture and work on my first sunburn of the 2011 beach-going season.

Related Post:

Mosquito
Vector Borne Diseases

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