High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The mosquito laser is a device invented by astrophysicist Lowell Wood to kill large numbers of mosquitoes to reduce the chance of people being infected with malaria. Mosquitoes can carry the blood parasite of the genus plasmodium, which causes malaria. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 300 million cases of malaria occur each year, causing over a million deaths per year. Although originally introduced in the early 1980s, the idea was not substantially researched until decades later. In 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation requested Intellectual Ventures LLC to find a way to fight and eventually end malaria. Intellectual Ventures resurrected the idea of using lasers to kill mosquitoes and now has a working prototype. The idea has been criticized because most areas where malaria runs rampant do not have reliable electrical power.