Why Breeding Millions of Mosquitoes Could Help Save Lives, With Scott O'Neill
Big Brains7 Mar 2024

Why Breeding Millions of Mosquitoes Could Help Save Lives, With Scott O'Neill

Mosquito-borne diseases are one of the greatest global health threats, infecting around 700 million people every year with Zika virus, dengue fever, malaria and yellow fever — which can all be deadly if left untreated. Unfortunately, the mosquito population is not slowing down, and factors like climate change and increased global travel are broadening the mosquito's range. The effort to stop the mosquito is not an easy task; insecticides and vaccines can't completely stop the spread of these diseases. But instead of trying to kill mosquitoes, one nonprofit is taking a unique approach.

Scientist Scott O'Neill is founder and CEO of the World Mosquito Program, a nonprofit group with the goal of eliminating mosquito-borne diseases. The program is implementing a new method of inoculating the wild population of mosquitoes with a bacteria called Wolbachia, which is resistant to diseases. So far, the program has been rolled out in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Australia and Mexico – and has already seen success in reducing rates of disease.

Link to the advertised Chicago Booth Review Podcast: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/podcast?source=cbr-sn-bbr-camp:podcast24-20240307

Big Brains is sponsored by the Graham School for Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies.

Follow Big Brains:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/big-brains-podcast/

X: https://x.com/BigBrainsUC


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(219)

Why We Haven’t Solved Brain Disorders—And How To Fix It, with Nicole Rust

Why We Haven’t Solved Brain Disorders—And How To Fix It, with Nicole Rust

For decades, neuroscience has promised breakthroughs in treating conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s. Yet despite powerful technologies and billions invested, progress has been ...

2 Okt 202536min

Life On Mars: Is It Possible For Humans? with Edwin Kite

Life On Mars: Is It Possible For Humans? with Edwin Kite

Billions of years ago, Mars may have looked less like the barren red desert we know today and more like Earth—with a blue sky, flowing rivers, and even seas. What happened to turn a once-habitable wor...

19 Sep 202530min

How To Use Nature To Restore Your Focus, with Marc Berman

How To Use Nature To Restore Your Focus, with Marc Berman

We’re living in an attention economy—and most of us are broke. But what if the secret to restoring your focus, improving your mental health, and even reducing crime rates wasn’t found in an app or a p...

4 Sep 202532min

Could Plants Unlock Quantum Medicine’s Potential? with Greg Engel

Could Plants Unlock Quantum Medicine’s Potential? with Greg Engel

We’ve long marveled at how efficiently plants convert sunlight into energy—but no one guessed they were using quantum mechanics to do it.In this episode, we speak with Greg Engel, a pioneering biophys...

21 Aug 202525min

How Microplastics Are Invading Our Bodies, with Matthew Campen

How Microplastics Are Invading Our Bodies, with Matthew Campen

You’ve heard of plastic polluting oceans. But what if it’s polluting you—your brain, your reproductive system, even your unborn children?In this eye-opening episode, we speak with Prof. Matthew Campen...

7 Aug 202528min

Why We Get Stuck—And How to Finally Move Forward

Why We Get Stuck—And How to Finally Move Forward

Hello listeners…we're re-releasing one of our favorite Big Brains episodes—an incredibly insightful conversation with psychologist Adam Alter. If you've ever felt stuck in your life or career, this ep...

24 Jul 202534min

Inside the AI Debate: Hope, Hype, Or Harm? A Big Brains Panel Weighs In

Inside the AI Debate: Hope, Hype, Or Harm? A Big Brains Panel Weighs In

One of the benefits of producing this podcast at the University of Chicago is that there are often events on campus that bring in not just one Big Brain, but many in order to find answers to the some ...

10 Jul 202547min

Are Your Medications Safe And Effective?, with Jerry Avorn

Are Your Medications Safe And Effective?, with Jerry Avorn

For a more than a century, the Food and Drug Administration has worked to protect public health. In his research, Harvard University physician-researcher Jerry Avorn has examined how the FDA’s once-ri...

26 Jun 202536min

Populært innen Fakta

fastlegen
dine-penger-pengeradet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
foreldreradet
rss-bisarr-historie
treningspodden
jakt-og-fiskepodden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
rss-kunsten-a-leve
mikkels-paskenotter
rss-sunn-okonomi
sinnsyn
hverdagspsyken
rss-kull
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
lederskap-nhhs-podkast-om-ledelse
fryktlos
gravid-uke-for-uke
hagespiren-podcast
rss-bak-luftfarten