Can We Track Malaria and Zika by Sound?

Bioengineers led by Manu Prakash of Stanford University have developed a program that is able to distinguish mosquito species from the distinctive sounds they make when they fly. Moreover, it’s so sensitive that recordings from even the most basic cell phone are good enough for the program to do its thing. The recordings can then be uploaded to their new web app, named Abuzz. It’s an ambitious citizen science project and the aim is nothing short of crowdsourced audio surveillance of the global mosquito population.

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