• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Mosquito Mapping

Mosquito Mapping

October 4, 2007
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/071004_sciup_mosq.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):
How mosquitoes find you. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

To find their next blood meal, mosquitoes follow odors like carbon dioxide from our breath and octenol from our sweat. Now, Vanderbilt University biologist Larry Zwiebel and his colleagues have produced a detailed map of mosquito smell organs called maxillary palps. The palps are covered with tiny, identical hairs.

LARRY ZWIEBEL (Vanderbilt University):
…. All of which, more or less, corresponded to three different neurons: one of which was tuned to carbon dioxide, one of which was tuned to octenol, and one of which was tuned a little more broadly.

HIRSHON:
Mosquitoes weigh the concentrations of these chemicals to find their favorite animals to bite. To combat malaria, Zwiebel eventually hopes to find ways to jam these odor receptors, either by blocking them or by overstimulating them instead. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Brain Science, Chemistry
Previous Post:Apes vs. Toddlers
Next Post:Fossil Roundup

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos