Dr. Jesse William Lazear and lasers!!!!
Jesse William Lazear was featured this week on Dead Scientist of the Week. Lazear studied vector transmission in Mosquitoes and proved that Yellow Fever was transmitted to humans via mosquitoes:
While he worked at Johns Hopkins, Lazear had followed the research of Sir Ronald Ross concerning the mosquito vector for the transmission of malaria. This experience allowed Lazear to be open to the theories of Cuban scientist Carlos Juan Finlay, who believed that mosquitoes were the vector for the transmission of yellow fever. By June of 1900 Lazear was culturing mosquitoes, from samples he had obtained from Finlay. The board however, acting under the instructions of Army Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg, had been investigating Bacillus icteroides as the causative agent for yellow fever. This line of research quickly proved to be fruitless and Lazear was well prepared to pursue research using mosquitoes as a vector for the disease.
The project started on August 1, 1900, using the mosquitoes that Lazear had cultured. Recording his experiments in a small pocket notebook, Lazear recorded the work of raising and infecting mosquitoes, and on August 11th to the 31st recording a series of inoculations, the last two of which produced full blown cases of yellow fever, proving that the vector for the disease was a mosquito.
-from Dead Scientist of the Week
Mosquitoes are a carrier of various dangerous infectious diseases. Without the work of scientists such as Sir Ronald Ross and Dr. Jesse William Lazear we would not have the knowledge necessary for the SF MAC Team to protect the citizens of San Francisco. For this reason we salute Jesse William Lazear.... and in honor of his namesake and his excitement about mosquitoes, we give you: LAZERS AND MOSQUITOES!!!!
Here is Wired magazine's article discussing the video above. Enjoy!
If you have any questions for the SF MAC Team, feel free to email us at sfpucmacteam [@] G mail [dot] com
CATEGORY: Vector Control