Here's my [Mark Frauenfelder] round up of highlights from the second day of the TED 2010
presentations. My head is abuzz with all the thought-provoking ideas I
learned today. (Here's yesterday's
roundup.)
Inventor Nathan Myhrvold, of Intellectual Ventures
had the most entertaining presentation of the day: a mosquito death ray.
It's part of a plan to eradicate malaria and it's being funded by
Myhrvold's former boss, Bill Gates.
First Myhrvold showed off a container that can keep vaccination medicine cold and fresh for six months. The old way -- a styrofoam cooler with ice -- keeps the medicine cold for just four hours. The new container loses less than 1/2 watt. It's similar to a cryogenic dewar, with the same kind of insulation. But this one works like a Coke machine, vending out vials one-at-a-time so warm air never gets inside the container.
Next, malaria. Every 43 seconds a kid dies of malaria in Africa. What can we do about it? Spraying is effective, but there are environmental issues. There's not an effective vaccine yet. Bed nets are effective, if you use them, but people use them for fishnets instead, and it won't make malaria extinct.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Highlights from TED 2010, Thursday: "Shooting mosquitoes out of the sky with lasers" Boing Boing
Author: Mark Frauenfelder
