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Comment by cnorthwood | Hacker News Reader

There's a lot of interesting work in eradicating malaria. Genetically modified mosquitos is one of them, which deserves careful watch https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas....

The Centre for Effective Altruism looks at ranking charities on effectiveness, and the Against Malaria Foundation always ranks very highly.

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Givewell also ranks that foundation very highly

Details for people who might want to dig in.

https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf

I'm waiting for the laser defense system for my back yard.

Where is the technology for this? This is an idea I had as a kid, everything I learned about science deems this possible.

There is a lot of research just lying around, waiting to be used. Check out PEANO-HASEL.

https://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_z...

Yes, I think this guy Myhrvold (who got rich managing some smart scientists at MS) owns a patent trolling business and slapped a patent on it, so nobody else can make and sell a mosquito laser cannon. The devil incarnate, apparently.

He gave a talk on it at an HN meetup in Seattle.

The true problem is that back when it was first invented, it wasn't practical. They are still improving it and trying to get it field tested.

Still though, lasers take a fair bit of power, and there is a distinct lack of power in places where mosquitoes are the thickest.

Also people get a bit touchy about "AI controlled lasers" in populated areas, even if the laser is low power.

The fact that they are still trying to improve it despite the lack of a huge economic incentive is a good thing IMHO.

the key word being make and sell. the design is publicly available, you just need to have the patience to build one yourself and you can have anything you like even if it is patented

IIRC technically patent law prohibits you from making it even if you don't plan on selling.

Yes, you recall correctly.

https://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/general-inform...

The key word is not and, but or. “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling”

OK. But the prohibition is enforced by the patent holder suing for damages. It seems 1) unlikely that the patent holder will discover the infringement in the case of a DIYer, 2) that they will go to the trouble of suing for damages and 3) that the damages will amount to anything significant.

Indeed! This was mentioned in David Brin's book "Earth". It discussed tracking mosquitoes with vision or radar or something and using lasers to zap them. The interesting bit was only zapping dangerous types of mosquitoes, based on wing-beating speed of different species. And that book was from 1990 I think.

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