Humans wiped out mosquitoes (in one small lab test)
If we could eliminate a species, should we?
BYE-BYE BUG Researchers used a gene drive to exterminate two small lab populations of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes this year. What would their loss mean?
Susan Biddle/The Washington Post/Getty Images
For the first time, humans have built a set of pushy, destructive genes that infiltrated small populations of mosquitoes and drove them to extinction.