Aedes aegypti mosquito – the primary vector of Zika tagged posts

1. The theory that primordial black holes collide with neutron stars to create heavy elements explains the lack of neutron stars in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, a long-standing mystery. Credit: University of California, Los Angeles
2. A black hole captured by a neutron star. Credit: Alexander Kusenko/UCLA

UCLA physicists have proposed new theories for how the universe’s first black holes might have formed and the role they might play in the production of heavy elements such as gold, platinum and uranium. A long-standing question in astrophysics is whether the universe’s very first black holes came into existence less than a second after the Big Bang or whether they formed only millions of years later during the deaths of the earliest stars.

Alexander Kusenko, a UCLA professor of phys...

Photo by Alexander Wild

A product called the OFF!® Clip-On™ repellent device could be an effective tool for preventing bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito – the primary vector of Zika, chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever. The OFF! Clip-On repels mosquitoes by releasing a vapor form of insecticide through a battery-powered fan, forming an insecticide “cloud” around the wearer of the device. In order to test the effectiveness of the device, Christopher Bibbs and Rui-De Xue of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in Florida studied how the device performed against hungry Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The study was done outdoors in order to replicate real-world conditions.

They found that the OFF! Clip-On caused high mosquito mortality and knockdown rates up to 0...