{"id":18,"date":"2021-10-15T19:55:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T23:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/?p=18"},"modified":"2023-10-31T19:24:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T23:24:54","slug":"season-1-episode-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/15\/season-1-episode-1\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happened to the Mosquitoes in Fresno?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Season 1 \u2022 Episode 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on earth; they kill 500,000 people a year\u2014and as the planet warms, more species are spreading North from the tropics. In 2013, a nasty new type, called Aedes Aegypti, arrived in Fresno, California. But traditional tactics, like spraying insecticide and genetic modification, have ugly side effects. So one genius programmer from Google thought up a better solution\u2014that doesn\u2019t involve insecticide; doesn\u2019t mess around with genes; doesn\u2019t require irradiating; makes it impossible for the mosquitoes to develop resistance; can\u2019t affect any other species; and costs less than what governments spend now on treating their citizens for Dengue fever. A lot was at stake in the Fresno experiment; if it worked, the technique could save lives around the world. (Spoiler: It worked.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guests: Linus Upson, VP of Engineering at Verily. Leslie Vosshall, professor of neuroscience at Rockefeller University. Jodi Holeman, Fresno Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District. Peter Massaro, Google director of automation. Jacob Crawford, senior scientist, Verily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Episode transcript<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Unsung Science 1.1\u2014The Mosquitoes of Fresno<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Theme begins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2013, Fresno, California, was invaded. The conqueror\u2019s name: Aedes aegypti.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: It is, like, the nastiest mosquito that\u2019s out there. So it\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s like the perfect evil species, really.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can spray insecticide, but that also kills bees and butterflies. You can try genetic engineering, but you run the risk of the mosquitoes developing resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But now, there\u2019s a third option\u2014no chemicals, no genetic shenanigans. And it was dreamed up\u2026by a software engineer at Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m David Pogue\u2014and this is \u201cUnsung Science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>AD BREAK<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey there! I\u2019m David Pogue, and this is&nbsp;<em>Unsung Science<\/em>: the stories behind amazing accomplishments in science and tech.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Season 1, Episode 1\u2026get psyched!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deadliest animals on earth are not snakes, scorpions, sharks, or even other people. It\u2019s mosquitoes. They kill a million people every year\u2014by biting us and infecting us with fun stuff like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, zika, West Nile, chikungunya, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You probably associate most of those afflictions with faraway, tropical climates. And that used to be a good assumption. But nowadays, in the climate-changed climate? Not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vosshall: So the milder the winters, the more favorable the neighborhood is for mosquitoes. It\u2019s like a new housing development that\u2019s opening, like, \u201cNow building phase three!\u201d Right? That\u2019s going to just keep moving up the Eastern Seaboard, because they need to not have overly harsh winters to be able to survive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is Leslie Vosshall, a professor of neuroscience at Rockefeller University. In 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, which is a big deal. I know this, because she\u2019s my sister-in-law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pogue: Sorry not to have had our annual holiday get together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vosshall: I miss it. I was I was so ready for it. It\u2019s the highlight of our year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the last decade, Dr. Vosshall\u2014oh man, so weird to call her that\u2014<em>Leslie\u2014<\/em>has been studying mosquitoes: how they find us and why they bite us. So before I tell you why you should care about Fresno\u2019s mosquito problem, I\u2019m going to let her blow your mind with three mosquito facts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fact #1: Only the females bite.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie: Yeah, this is an important point. And I\u2019m amazed that 99 percent of both the general public and Ph.D. scientists find that surprising. Most people assume that a mosquito is a mosquito, that the females and the males are both equal-opportunity blood feeders. Only females bite.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which is going to be very important as this story unwinds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ok, Fact #2: Those little ladies don\u2019t mean us any harm.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie They\u2019re not doing it on purpose. They\u2019re not doing it because they hate people and they want to kill them. The females are going about their mandate. Their mandate is to get blood. That is their one job as future mothers, is to get blood. Because without that blood, she won\u2019t produce children.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They\u2019re not even the original source of the diseases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie: (cont\u2019d) So humans just happen to be carrying these diseases, and the females spread them. In the process of eating their meal from us, they end up infecting people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And fact #3 is the one that fried&nbsp;<em>my<\/em>&nbsp;brain. In the warmer climate, mosquitoes are spreading northward into new regions\u2014but not by flapping their little wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>They don\u2019t really move around by their own power. They\u2019ll move around maybe a half a mile. But it\u2019s people that move them, absolutely you\u2019re right about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s right:&nbsp;<em>We&nbsp;<\/em>are spreading the mosquitoes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie:&nbsp;<strong><\/strong>The two biggest ways that mosquitoes hitchhike around the world, those stupid floral arrangements that you get, those little bamboo things, those little sprouted bamboo things that are filled with water\u2014where are they set up? They\u2019re set up in the tropics. So they come from China, Thailand, Vietnam. Somebody sets them up, puts them on some big container ship and puts them into flower shops all over the country. And those things tend to be full of mosquitoes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other major way that the animals hitchhike is on the global used tire trade. So, tires are heaven for mosquitoes. If you want to set up a mansion for mosquitoes, tires! Because they\u2019re black, they end up heating up, and they are they filled with water, which just becomes like a teeming nursery for mosquitoes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie Vosshall spends most of her time studying one mosquito species in particular:&nbsp;<em>Aedes aegypti<\/em>. Two Latin words: Aedes, A-E-D-E-S, and aegypti, spelled like A-Egypt-I. It\u2019s&nbsp;<em>the worst.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: Yeah, it\u2019s probably, you know, top two most wanted mosquito in the queue. You could arguably top\u2014most wanted mosquito in the mosquito world. So, yeah, it\u2019s not the one that you want to be dealing with.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi Holeman is the superintendent of operations for the Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District in California\u2014that\u2019s Fresno and nearby Central Valley towns. She\u2019s quiiiiite familiar with Aedes aegypti.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: It is, like, the nastiest mosquito that\u2019s out there. It\u2019s super aggressive with people, difficult to find, difficult to control. A single female will bite you multiple times. I can\u2019t tell you how many residents have shown me their legs, their arms, their extremities, and all the bites that they have. So it\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s like the perfect evil species, really.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until a few years ago, Aedes aegypti was the rest of the world\u2019s problem. But in 2013, as part of its master plan to move north, aegypti arrived in Fresno, California.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mercifully, the Fresno aegyptis are not carrying diseases, as they do in other parts of the world\u2014at least not yet. But they&nbsp;<em>are&nbsp;<\/em>incredibly annoying.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: People are not used to it. People in our jurisdiction in the Central Valley of California, they associate really bad mosquito problems with camping, or going up into high elevations\u2014not going into their backyards, right? So now we have this new species that\u2019s super aggressive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, we\u2019re not completely helpless. We do have some anti-mosquito artillery at our disposal. For example, we can spray insecticides\u2014and we do. A lot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, insecticides kill more than mosquitoes. They also wipe out lots of innocent-bystander bugs\u2014like honeybees, ladybugs, and butterflies\u2014some of which actually would have&nbsp;<em>helped<\/em>&nbsp;with the mosquito problem, if, you know, we hadn\u2019t killed them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Insecticides also accumulate in the water, which kills frogs and fish, and eventually makes its way into our bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And worst of all, over time, mosquitoes develop resistance to our insecticides, exactly the way certain bacteria become resistant to our antibiotics. The world\u2019s chemical companies have to keep tinkering with the formulas so their sprays remain effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are also ways to reduce the mosquito population through genetic engineering, using CRISPR gene-editing techniques. But according to Leslie, that approach has its own problems, one of which is, again, resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie: Once you start CRISPRing mosquitoes, I do have the concerns about, like, what is the long term strategy for having that not get you resistance in a couple of years? I think even already in the laboratory, it doesn\u2019t take that long for mutations to arise, where the female will circumvent \u2014the population will circumvent that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other problem with genetic modification is that it involves the words \u201cgenetic modification.\u201d Which terrifies a lot of people. You know, playing God, tinkering with nature\u2019s delicate balance, all that kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie: People are at this unprecedented state where nobody trusts scientists. There has to be an enormous amount of public engagement. You have to convince the public that it is safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Out in California, Jodi Holeman\u2019s team had tried everything to solve the mosquito problem in Fresno. Spraying. Educating people about standing water in their yards. Nothing worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: Even with literally throwing every tool we had in the toolbox at this particular species when we first identified it in our district, it continued to spread. It was a\u2014pretty colossal failure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OK. So how do you solve a problem like aegypti?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Silicon Valley software engineers, of course. You\u2019ve probably heard that clich\u00e9 about how they just want to make the world a better place\u2014but sometimes, they actually do it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: After working at Google a number of years, I managed to get the freedom to have, to go try crazy things. And I was able to get permission to go and try&nbsp;<em>this<\/em>&nbsp;crazy thing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus Upson no longer works at Google. Now he works at Verily Life Sciences, Google\u2019s sister company\u2014part of the Alphabet family. Verily is dedicated to solving public-health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: (cont\u2019d) And at the beginning, I gave ourselves maybe a 20 percent chance of success. There\u2019s a lot of things in biology and in health care that fail. It\u2019s much less reliable than computer science. But I thought the payoff was big enough in terms of the impact you could have on global health, that it was worth trying.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That payoff would be wiping out mosquito-borne diseases by drastically reducing the mosquito population. But not by spraying, and not with genetic tampering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His big idea\u2014the one he gave a 1 in 5 chance of success\u2014was the&nbsp;<em>sterile insect technique,&nbsp;<\/em>or S.I.T.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope you\u2019re&nbsp;<em>sit<\/em>ting down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>So the sterile insect technique was developed by a couple of very clever entomologists. If a sterile male mates with a fertile female, she\u2019ll still get the insect equivalent of pregnant. She\u2019ll still produce and lay eggs, but the eggs won\u2019t hatch. You can make each generation smaller and smaller.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sterile insect technique debuted in the 1950s, when it was used to tackle the New World Screwworm Fly, a nasty little parasite that was killing thousands upon thousands of cattle, and costing ranchers billions of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: They chew their way through the animal, killing and maiming it in the process. And this was costing cattle ranchers billions of dollars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><\/strong>And so they reared billions and billions of screwworm fly, dropped them from airplanes across the United States, and over a 10 year period, completely removed screwworm fly from the United States.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So here, at last, is the big reveal: Linus Upson\u2019s master plan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His mosquito-control idea doesn\u2019t involve insecticides; doesn\u2019t mess around with genes; doesn\u2019t require irradiating the males; making it impossible for the mosquitoes to develop resistance; can\u2019t affect any other species; and costs less than what governments spend&nbsp;<em>now&nbsp;<\/em>on treating their citizens for Dengue fever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The experts rave. Jodi Holeman, Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi&nbsp;<strong><\/strong>A beautiful system. It really is.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie Vosshall, Rockefeller University:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leslie:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Very clever, very effective, kind of more cost effective because they don\u2019t have to deal with a few animals escaping, still being fertile.So I think that that\u2019s highly effective.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The key to the whole thing is another Latin-named critter: Wolbachia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Instead of irradiating the mosquitoes to make them sterile, we actually take advantage of a naturally occurring bacterium that exists in more than half of the world\u2019s insects, called Wolbachia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s W-O-L, b-a-c-h, I-A. Wolbachia. A very common, very widespread, harmless kind of bacteria. It\u2019s found naturally in 60% of all insect species\u2014but not Aedes aegypti.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And here\u2019s a lucky break: If a male mosquito does get Wolbachia, it can go right ahead and have sex with a female in the wild that&nbsp;<em>doesn\u2019t&nbsp;<\/em>have Wolbachia. She\u2019ll lay her eggs\u2014but they\u2019ll never hatch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>And if the male has Wolbachia and the female doesn\u2019t, she\u2019ll still produce and lay eggs. But the Wolbachia will arrange for those eggs to die.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David:&nbsp;<strong><\/strong>Wow! So the male doesn\u2019t know that anything\u2019s wrong, the female doesn\u2019t know that anything is wrong. She\u2014she goes ahead and lays her eggs. It\u2019s just that the next generation doesn\u2019t come along.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: That\u2019s right.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It sounded very cool in principle. All he had to do to get started\u2026 was build the world\u2019s largest, airlock-controlled, robotically governed mosquito-raising factory\u2014and then invent a machine that could separate the boy mosquitoes from the girl mosquitoes without making a single mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, I got to see the place. After the break\u2014I\u2019ll take you on a tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>BREAK<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Verily Life Sciences is dedicated to developing cool moon-shot human-health inventions like battery-powered, glucose-sensing contact lenses, or a spoon that holds steady even if you have a severe tremor. Its headquarters are a pair of huge, sleek, four-story office buildings in South San Francisco.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you pass through a courtyard, through security, and down a couple of hallways, you arrive at the mosquito-rearing facility. Our tour guide is Pete Massaro, Google\u2019s director of automation. He designed a lot of the machines you\u2019re about to meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first stop\u2026 is the airlock.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Peter: Remember\u2014leave the mosquitoes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(airlock noise)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: You have an airlock!? Oh wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(Leave the audio up, so that DP has to raise his voice.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s just like the one on a spaceship, except here, they\u2019re not worried about losing air to outer space; they\u2019re\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(end of the blowing sounds\u2014DP must compensate his volume)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014they\u2019re worried about stray mosquitoes getting out of the building. Big fans blow air&nbsp;<em>inward&nbsp;<\/em>into the facility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Next, you enter\u2026 the insectary.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sound of the mosquitoes throughout:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a plain white room, dominated by four gigantic mosquito cages, each a cube about four feet square. That sound you hear? That\u2019s not fans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: I\u2013 I have to comment on the sound. (LAUGH) This is, like\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: 600,000 mosquitoes flying sounds like\u2013 (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: A nightmare. (LAUGHTER)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: It should make you itchy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It took me days to get that sound out of my brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Verily gets these mosquitoes, pre-infected with Wolbachia, from a company in Kentucky. Their eggs hatch into larvae, which look like minuscule white specks. They\u2019re poured into clear plastic pouches, along with food and water, and loaded&nbsp;<em>by robot&nbsp;<\/em>into this\u2014oh man, how can I describe it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Begin robot audio<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Imagine a grocery-store aisle, except that it\u2019s only 2 feet wide. And the shelves on either side of you are made of stainless steel, and only a few inches tall each. So there\u2019s like 35 shelves on each side. Each shelf contains those plastic bags full of developing mosquitoes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And running back and forth between the shelves is Pete Massaro\u2019s masterpiece: a robot. An eight-foot-tall, faceless, shiny silver storage-and-retrieval robot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: They\u2019re now in here with the food and water. \/ 16:43:07&nbsp; It\u2019s also insectary conditions in there. So it\u2019s 80 degrees. We feed those with that same robot\u2013 four times during the six days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All day long, the robot zooms back and forth through these skinny aisles, raising generation after generation of mosquitoes. It loads new trays into the shelves, tends them and gives them food pills, and then, after six days of growing, pulls the finished trays out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The robot doesn\u2019t have a name, but as far as those mosquitoes are concerned, it\u2019s, \u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: And I see barcodes on those trays. Are you able to track these\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: Every single\u2013 every location is tracked. Every mosquito has a name and a number. And every single mosquito has an image that\u2019s stored on Google Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Its picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: Every single one of \u2018em. (LAUGH) Every one from the very first mosquito we ever made.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Have you ever thought about running the Department of Motor Vehicles? (LAUGHTER) It\u2019s the same problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: It would be fun. (LAUGH)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After six days, the larvae have grown into pupae. At this stage, the females are slightly bigger than the males, which works out nicely for the next step: Separating the boys from the girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: So in order to do the\u2013 sterile insect technique, using Wolbachia, you need to release only the males. So you wanna be very careful not to have females released. We have a very carefully designed sieve that separates about 97% to 99% of the females from males.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, a sieve. Yet another robot slices open each pouch and dumps its watery contents through a sieve.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: The males will\u2013 fall through the sieve. And females go to their destiny. Which is the municipal waste water treatment plant. (LAUGH) But actually\u2013 we actually, first we\u2013 we cook them. So that they\u2019re not live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now comes\u2026 the&nbsp;<em>really&nbsp;<\/em>cool part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sieve is 99% accurate at separating the bugs by sex. But in this context, 99 percent isn\u2019t good enough. If you release&nbsp;<em>any&nbsp;<\/em>Wolbachia females into the wild, they could wind up mating with your Wolbachia&nbsp;<em>males,&nbsp;<\/em>and the whole beautiful system of population control would fall apart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So how do you eliminate the last one percent of females? This is how Linus Upson explains it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus We had to develop machines that can separate male and female mosquitoes at near perfection.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Come on. That sounds like a bad science fiction movie. How can you create a machine that separates male from female mosquitoes by the millions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus There\u2019s an engineer in our team who is an automation expert by training, named Victor Criswell. He spent about two and a half years trying to figure out how to get mosquitoes to march single file in front of a camera, so that we could take their picture and use jets of air to sort the males and females apart. Because the males and females actually look quite different from each other, if you can get a good picture of them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And these bugs just don\u2019t want to do what you want them to do! If you want them to fly, they walk; if you want them to walk, they\u2019re going to fly. If you want them to go one way, they\u2019ll go the other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: Was it ever in doubt that you\u2019d be able to get these machines working?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Oh, yeah! It was in doubt for about two and a half years! We tried dozens of different configurations, different ideas. Can we tell the difference between males and females by wing beat frequency? Do we want them flying? Do we want them walking?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, it was lots and lots of things were tried before we were able to get to the point where we developed confidence of like, \u201cOK, we don\u2019t have it perfect yet, but we see a path where this could work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And believe it or not, it actually works. I witnessed it! The factory has over 150 of these sex-sorting machines, row after row of \u2018em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In each machine, you can see the mosquitoes walk one by one into a narrow, white, illuminated tunnel. A gate snaps shut behind it. That clicking you hear is all the little gates opening and closing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: It\u2019s almost like ant trails or something. We don\u2019t exactly know why they do this. They just get in there and walk right through. It\u2019s, like, \u201cYeah, this is where I belong.\u201d Right?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, a camera takes the mosquito\u2019s picture. Software identifies it as either male or female, and then clicks open one of two gates. A little puff of air blows the bug out of the tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: And so if it\u2019s a male, it will send it up into the container. If it\u2019s a female or unidentified, it will send it to its doom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: And\u2013 and that works?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: That has worked so incredibly well that, you know, to our knowledge, no females have ever left this factory.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Well, Pete, would you go so far as to say that what is before us is the world\u2019s most advanced mosquito sex-sorting machine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PETER: I would definitely say that. (LAUGHTER)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the summer of 2017, the whole thing was ready to launch. The Verily team had worked out the bugs\u2014sorry\u2014and built themselves a rip-roaring, well-oiled mosquito factory, capable of churning out millions of males a week, every single one infected with Wolbachia bacteria. They had even gotten approval from the EPA to perform this experiment in the wild.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now all they had to do was convince the&nbsp;<em>residents<\/em>&nbsp;of Fresno that this was going to be a good idea. The pitch was basically this:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHello there, neighbor! Say\u2014a bunch of Silicon Valley engineers are going to be driving around in weird white cannon vans, shooting out millions&nbsp;<em>more&nbsp;<\/em>mosquitoes into your front yards. Ok, sound good?\u201d What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JODI: When you get out of the laboratory and you start to get into people\u2019s neighborhoods and into their lives, you\u2019ve got to have a&nbsp;<em>stronnnng<\/em>&nbsp;communication program.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: You mean, you think that ordinary citizens might not immediately love the idea of you guys air-dropping&nbsp;<em>millions more mosquitoes<\/em>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>I know. It\u2019s just a\u2014It boggles the mind that people just aren\u2019t like, \u201coh, yeah, sure, whatever you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Representatives from Jodi\u2019s team and the Verily team held a series of community gatherings and movie nights, offering free Jamba Juice cards to anyone who\u2019d show up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>You had people that were either, \u201cI don\u2019t\u2014I don\u2019t care what you guys are doing. Especially if you\u2019re going to do something about this mosquito because it\u2019s driving me nuts.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then you had the other side of\u2014 the other extreme, which is I mean, it just ended up being like a list of conspiracy theories, really. People that had all these thoughts as to what we were doing, that \u2014 that we were trying to do population control, that we were releasing insects that carried something that would make people sick and die.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: It\u2019s\u2014it\u2019s disheartening. It\u2019s hard to hear somebody say to you that they genuinely think you\u2019re out to kill them. And so I try to \u2014while I can\u2019t validate that, I try to acknowledge it and say, I just\u2014I just will not give up in trying to find common ground.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>It was it was a\u2014 it was a battle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And even once the Fresnonians were convinced that the project had value, she had to prepare them for\u2014the vans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(Horror-movie chord sound)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JODI: Because it\u2019s not an ice cream truck. They designed these vans that have these ginormous tubes that are really, really cool. And these tubes have literally thousands and thousands and thousands of mosquitoes, male mosquitoes inside of them. That is connected to basically an apparatus that sort of pulsates them out. It kind of blows these mosquitoes out of the side of the van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the summer of 2017, the Verily mosquito vans made their first runs, blasting millions of male mosquitoes into the sunny Fresno air.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All they had to do now was wait to see the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob: So we were actually able to see the results within about a week and a half or two weeks. Not\u2014 not to say that that was the end point, but we could see the impact of our releases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob Crawford is a senior scientist at Verily\u2014a mosquito biologist on the Debug team. To monitor the experiment\u2019s results, his crew put out mosquito traps all over Fresno, and counted how many adult mosquitoes wound up in them. But he could also collect mosquito&nbsp;<em>eggs&nbsp;<\/em>around town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob: All we have to do is, is kind of cure them a little bit back in the lab, and then flood them as if it was raining, which is what they\u2019re waiting for. And if they have mated with one of our males, then they\u2019ll never hatch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Debug Fresno got a late start in the 2017 skeeter season; all that EPA paperwork had held them up. But when 2018 rolled around, they were ready.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:&nbsp;<strong><\/strong><strong><\/strong>In 2018, we sort of had everything dialed in and everything ran really smoothly. Because it was our second time doing it and we got gotten a lot better at it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It didn\u2019t take long for the team\u2014and the town\u2014to learn the results.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: And what were the numbers?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob: So the previous week we were seeing that something on the order of 70 to 80 percent of the eggs would hatch? And in the span of about a week or two, that \u2014we took that down to zero. I did a dance at my desk. That was the strongest results I had seen and many, many moons.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi Holeman flipped through the binders of data that revealed how many female mosquitoes were showing up in the traps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: Suddenly it\u2019s like, zero zero zero zero zero, indicating no females and no females in the trap, no females in the trap. So that was very exciting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was the biggest mosquito SIT experiment ever run in the U.S., and it was a grand slam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob: We managed to reduce the mosquito population by 95 percent\u2026 in the areas where we are treating compared to the areas where we weren\u2019t treating.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: I would call that a success.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob: All that is a massive impact. Absolutely.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Do you think residents would notice?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacob: Absolutely. Yeah. They went from not being able to use their backyards because the mosquito was so aggressive, to having a summer where they weren\u2019t getting bitten. They were all saying the same thing: \u201cThank you. This has been a great, a much better summer for us.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Verily debugged Fresno one more time, in 2019\u2014again, with spectacular results\u2014but then that was it. From the beginning, Debug Fresno had been designed as a three-year test, a proof of concept for bigger and needier areas\u2014like Singapore, an island nation with record-breaking waves of dengue fever. Last year, 35,000 Singaporians were diagnosed with this awful mosquito-borne disease, which brings extreme fever, internal bleeding, shock, and sometimes death\u2014the highest number ever recorded in a year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus Upson\u2019s team has partnered with Singapore\u2019s government to develop a program called\u2014Debug Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: And so we\u2019re in the process of building our first dedicated factory, to make mosquitoes in Singapore. It has the floor space to be capable of running a program for the entire country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Verily is also laying the groundwork for Debug Puerto Rico.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: The other place we\u2019re working right now is, we\u2019re partnering with the CDC in Puerto Rico. So we\u2019ve been producing mosquitoes and shipping them to Puerto Rico throughout the entire pandemic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pogue: Shipping them to Puerto Rico? From here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: Yes. It was easier to ship them from here than to build a factory in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pogue: I see. How do you do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: There was a lot of engineering work in figuring out how to safely transport mosquitoes in airplanes, at lower pressure, and sitting on tarmacs in the heat, and getting them out there. We have a special container they go in, and we control oxygen, and carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, so they can all get there safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After Singapore and Puerto Rico, well, the world\u2019s the limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>We\u2019re talking with a number of other places in the Caribbean and a number of other places around the world. We\u2019re just now getting to the stage where we can take on multiple projects at the same time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, Verily is part of Alphabet, and Alphabet is a for-profit corporation; and ultimately, Linus Upson says that the Debug program has a business model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: So someday the governments will, in theory, pay the company to run these programs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: That\u2019s the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If all goes well, Verily\u2019s government customers will be able to save lives&nbsp;<em>and&nbsp;<\/em>save money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: So the way we\u2019re approaching this from a business perspective, is we want to make the cost of this intervention substantially less than governments\u2019 direct health care spend on dengue.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David: OK, so if you can get rid of the mosquitoes in a certain region more cheaply than what a government is now spending to treat the disease, the government will say, well, then that\u2019s worth it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: Correct.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I gotta say, I love this story. I love that a software engineer with a goal to save millions of lives might actually do it. I love that Verily\u2019s approach doesn\u2019t involve chemicals or genetic tampering. I love that this crazy program actually&nbsp;<em>works.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It all just sounds a little too perfect. Surely there\u2019s&nbsp;<em>some&nbsp;<\/em>unwanted side effect. Surely these Silicon Valley geniuses have overlooked&nbsp;<em>something.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David<strong>:<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>What is there to be afraid of if this becomes a common technique? You know, are you depriving birds of their meals?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>So Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are invasive in most of the world. Humans spread them around the globe starting about 400 years ago. We\u2019re the ones who are building all the habitat for them. We build gutters and storm drains and great places for mosquito larvae to breed. And so we have dramatically amplified their population all over the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re the ones who, who created that population of mosquitoes to begin with. So from an environmental standpoint, we\u2019re just cleaning up the mess we made in the process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>It just it seems too good to be true.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: Unlike chemical pesticides, which, you know, are broad spectrum and kill a wide range of insects, one of the wonderful parts of the sterile insect technique is that is exquisitely species specific. You\u2019re targeting&nbsp;<em>just the one thing<\/em>&nbsp;that you\u2019re going after. And the sterile insect technique, we\u2019ve been doing now for 70 years. It\u2019s been one of the most successful interventions for crops and livestock. And now we just want to be able to also apply it to human health.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><strong><\/strong>So is there&nbsp;<em>anything<\/em>&nbsp;to worry about?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Linus: We haven\u2019t been able to come up with one.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if you live in Fresno, you might have one concern. What makes this sterile insect technique so safe and so controllable is that it affects only one generation of bugs. The males that you infect with Wolbachia don\u2019t pass&nbsp;<em>on&nbsp;<\/em>Wolbachia, because, remember, they can\u2019t make babies. So\u2014no unintended consequences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, that SIT affects only one generation is also the&nbsp;<em>bad&nbsp;<\/em>news. Because if you don\u2019t&nbsp;<em>keep<\/em>&nbsp;shooting Wolbachia males out of your vans, the wild mosquito population will bounce back.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was no Debug Fresno program in 2020, and there won\u2019t be one in 2021. So for now, the era of Fresno\u2019s beautiful, bite-free backyard barbecues is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi:<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Basically yes, the population will rebound really quickly once you stop releases. Mosquitoes from outside neighborhoods, they\u2019re going to move back in really, really quickly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, Jodi Holeman holds out hope that a Wolbachia project could return, or expand. Maybe Fresno, or maybe California, could become one of Verily\u2019s paying customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jodi: Can you imagine if you could roll out a program that started from, like, Southern California and just released slow and just\u2014 just gradually, knock this population out as it went up the state?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, it\u2019s a massive effort. It\u2019s an expensive effort, it has to be a coordinated effort. But I feel like, you know, there are some things that residents are willing to pay for. And when they\u2019re being terrorized by mosquitoes, if you have something that you can tell them, \u201cHey, it\u2019s 95 percent,\u201d I think you\u2019ll have strong support for funding a program like that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now we\u2019re going to send you out into the sunset with a special treat. Jodi Holeman\u2019s<br>boss, Steve Mulligan, has a hobby. He writes song parodies about, if you can believe it, the sterile mosquito technique you\u2019ve just been hearing about. With tremendous apologies to Nirvana and it\u2019s song \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d, take it away Steve!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(<em>Steve sings parody mosquito song<\/em>)<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1341\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-18-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3\">https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/?powerpress_pinw=18-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"unsungscience-20211015.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on earth; they kill 500,000 people a year\u2014and as the planet warms, more species are spreading North from the tropics. In 2013, a nasty new type, called Aedes Aegypti, arrived in Fresno, California. But traditional tactics, like spraying insecticide and genetic modification, have ugly side effects.<span class=\"excerpt-more-link\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/15\/season-1-episode-1\/\">More <svg class=\"svg-icon\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\" focusable=\"false\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M6.96954 10.2804L11.9999 15.3107L17.0302 10.2804L15.9695 9.21973L11.9999 13.1894L8.0302 9.21973L6.96954 10.2804Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"excerpt-audio-block\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20211015.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}