Advertising: Borrowing The Tricks Of TV News To Set A Show Apart Fox Broadcasting is sending fake news vans onto the streets of four cities to promote its new sitcom, ?Back to You.?... Read Full Article The Race To Read Genomes On A Shoestring, Relatively Speaking If the cost of sequencing a human genome can drop to $1,000 or below, experts say it would start to become feasible to tell what diseases people might be at risk for.... Read Full Article Pervez Musharraf Names Loyalist As His Successor President Pervez Musharraf named his most trusted army ally to succeed him as head of the military yesterday, tightening his grip on power ahead of this weekend’s presidential elections.... Read Full Article Gates Foundation Renews TB Fight The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a new package of grants to fight tuberculosis, bringing to $740 million the amount it has spent or committed so far on the disease.... Read Full Article Corruption Scandal Spreads At Samsung Prosecutors opened a formal investigation into charges that the chairman of the South Korean conglomerate masterminded a broad scheme of bribery and illegal transactions.... Read Full Article |
Observatory: The Secret Of DEET? It Masks Odors That Usually Attract BugsDEET is the most widely used insect repellent in the world, and for good reason — just a dab or two of a DEET-laden liquid on exposed skin keeps mosquitoes and other bugs away. Chris GashRelated Observatory: When a Sticky Gecko Starts to Slip, Its Tail Comes to the Rescue (March 18, 2008) Observatory: They May Not Use Gasoline, but They Sure Burn Through Water (March 18, 2008) More Observatory Columns » Web LinksInsect Odorant Receptors Are Molecular Targets of the Insect Repellent DEET (Science) It may be great stuff, but DEET (short for N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) has also been a great mystery since it was developed after World War II. No one has known why it does what it does. All researchers really knew, said Leslie B. Vosshall, a researcher at Rockefeller University in New York, “is that it had something to do with insect smell.” Now Dr. Vosshall, with her colleagues Mathias Ditzen and Maurizio Pellegrino, has uncovered DEET’s secret. It does indeed have something to do with smell: it jams odorant receptors in insect nervous systems, in effect masking odors that would ordinarily attract the bugs. DEET doesn’t block all receptors, the researchers report in a study published online by Science. In experiments with mosquitoes and fruit flies, they showed that the chemical inhibited receptors for three compounds in human sweat. These receptors and others work in combination with a co-receptor, a protein called OR83b. While DEET is an effective repellent, it doesn’t work against all bugs, it’s corrosive to plastics and there are concerns about its effect on human health. Now that they know that DEET targets OR83b co-receptors, Dr. Vosshall said, they can quickly screen thousands of other compounds in hope of finding one that is more effective and has fewer disadvantages. “DEET seems to work better at blocking some receptors rather than others,” Dr. Vosshall said. “Our goal is to find something that would block all of them. If you get that, you can get every insect on earth.” Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationFor Astronauts and Their Families, Lives With Built-In Stress...Human Shadows on the Seas... Shuttle Appears Ready for Launch Early Tuesday... Florida: Shuttle Launching Is Scheduled... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Observatory: The Secret Of DEET? It Masks Odors That Usually Attract Bugs |
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