How Building a New Mosquito Could End Malaria

Malaria is a ugly disease . It explodes your mobile phone and wears their skin as camouflage so it can more in effect burst more cadre . The disease kill overa millionpeople every year — but asKurzgesagt explains , our serious bet to eradicate malaria is by building a new mosquito .

mosquito are excellent vehicles for disease . ( They were voted Most potential to Cause Misery on a Catastrophic Scale in high school . ) Killing every last mosquito would discontinue malaria , but it ’s simply not possible . They ’ve been on Earth much longer than and vastly outnumber mankind . But CRISPR — a comparatively Modern factor editing technique — could hold the answer .

In research lab , mosquitos that are unable to carry malaria have already been created . scientist have also made sure the malaria - dodge gene is a dominant trait , so that the effect do n’t become massively dilute over contemporaries of mosquito training .

So why has n’t this plan been carry out yet ?

Well , mainly because we ’ve pass on the muzzy territory of “ can we really do it ? ” and entered the reeking quagmire of “ should we really do it ? ” factor editing on this scale has never been seek before in real ecosystem — in this case , across the entire satellite — and once we cut through that threshold we ca n’t ever go back .

But Kurzgesagt points out that we miss the luxury of clock time to make the most informed decisiveness . hoi polloi die of malaria every day . At a certain power point , it becomes irresponsible not to take advantage of our discoveries .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.