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Gates Foundation Funds "Altruistic Vaccine"
QuantumG writes "The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to the University of Queensland, Australia to develop a vaccine against dengue fever, a disease spread by mosquitoes. Unlike other vaccines, the 'altruistic vaccine' doesn't specifically protect the individual being bitten, but instead protects the community by stopping the transmission of the pathogen from one susceptible individual to another. The hope is to do this by effectively making their blood poisonous to mosquitoes, either killing them or at least preventing them from feeding on other individuals. Professor Paul Young explained how his work fell outside current scientific traditions and might lead to significant advances in global health — he said he could envision the vaccine being used around the world within 10 years, and it would be designed to be cheap and easy to implement."
Is this a vaccine that prevent you from getting infected with that anti-captialist altruistism?
Is this yet another attempt for Microsoft to destroy the Free Software movement?
We will have new, super mosquitoes, who's bite is deadly to humans.
Mosquitoes certainly have their role in the ecosystem and killing them will certainly have unforeseen consequences. More like in the Mao and sparrows story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sparrow_Campaign
And besides, Sparrows are too cute to kill.
Won't anybody think of the mosquitoes?
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I'd rather they made my blood poisonous to lawyers.
Quack, quack.
but lawyers don't suck people's bloo...wait!
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Really he should up this to 640K. That should be enough for anybody.
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They *hate* that.