Intellectual Ventures Lab

In order to better understand malaria and its spread, we first need to have an understanding of how the carriers of this disease behave. One of the big questions that we are exploring is, what attracts mosquitoes to humans in the first place? Sure they need our blood to reproduce, but how are they able to seek us out? How do they know to land on me and not the tree I’m standing next to? Why are some mosquitoes within a species more attracted to cows, and others more attracted to humans?

More photos after the break

The Quarter Shrinker was constructed by Rob Flickenger at Hackerbot Labs.

Quarter Shrinking has three steps.
1. make a coil of wire,
2. stick quarter inside it,
3. discharge an enormous amount of electric current through the coil.

But what does that actually do, other than making a big boom? … (click for more) Read more…