Zapping malaria

The WSJ and The Economist already reported on this one. But better late than never, I just can't resist posting this:

Intellectual Ventures, a company founded by ex-Microsoft guys, is working on a new way to limit the spread of malaria by taking aim at the mosquitoes that spread the disease - literally.

The company is working on something that sounds like a parody of Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense initiative: A high-tech "fence" that can distinguish mosquitoes from other things (like, for example, humans) by the sounds they make and kills incoming mosquitoes mid-flight using lasers.
Or, as the company puts it so eloquently on one of their web pages: "Shooting mosquitoes with frickin' lasers"

It is definitely an entertaining idea. But, most of the spread of malaria affects regions where people have trouble affording insecticide-treated bed nets costing less than 10$, so I am not sure how big the market for this is.