Ready, aim, suck up mosquitoes: An 'insectazooka' aims to find the next killer virus
In Guatemala's mosquito-plagued lowlands, researchers use a novel tool to suck up mosquitoes to analyze pathogens in their latest blood meal. The hope is to stop the next pandemic before it starts.
It's early morning in banana farm country in the lowlands of western Guatemala, about 10 miles from the Mexican border. The sun has just started cooking the air into a tropical soup. Crop dusters zigzag across the sky, casting shadows on the roofs of half a dozen low-slung buildings. One is a health clinic, another is a laboratory. This is the Fundación para la Salud Integral de los Guatemaltecos, or FunSalud for short.
About half past 8, a couple dozen junior researchers spill out of a building, jump into their three-wheeled red and green tuk-tuks, and fan out onto the rural roads. Research coordinator Neudy Rojop is behind the wheel of one of them. The ride is bumpy, jostling her up and down, but she's unflappable. "We are visiting
