Given the Comic Relief focus on the ravages of malaria in Africa, it is interesting to read (http://www.comicrelief.com/donate/malaria_no_more) that one of the claimed 'spin offs' of the US 'Starwars Defense System' may be a laser device to burn the wings off homing mosquitoes 100 yards away (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123680870885500701.html), having identified them and locked on to their buzz. The approach (a WMD or Weapon of Mosquito Destruction) is reportedly one supported by Bill Gates and the UN. I have to note, however, that, in situations where people apparently find it impossible to get access to low-tech but cheap mosquito nets, the idea of surrounding remote African villages by laser defense systems seems just a bit unlikely. Would they have reliable electricity supplies and people who would maintain and repair the equipment?Incidentally, on the Comic Relief programme, the phrase "No parent should have to bury their child" was used several times (as in 'Lord of the Rings'). I certainly have every sympathy with the emotion expressed (I don't think I could handle any such thing at all well) but, having worked on the geneology of my family, I have been struck by the fact that the early deaths of infants and children was actually quite a common event in the UK only a couple of generations ago. The idea of infant death as being 'impossible' is a very recent and still quite regional concept.
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