Daily briefing: Vaccine-carrying mosquitoes could inoculate bats against rabies

"Aedes aegypti mosquitoes engineered to carry vaccines in their saliva have been used in the lab to inoculate bats against the rabies and Nipah viruses. Researchers fed the mosquitoes blood that contained a vaccine against one of the two viruses, which were then passed on either when the insects fed on bats or when the bats ate them."

"People who use large language models are picking up writing patterns, reasoning methods and even opinions from the chatbots, some research suggests. This pattern threatens to homogenize human writing and discourse, argue some computer scientists, and could even influence text written by people that aren't first-hand AI users."

"Experts say that this rain probably contains both soot, which can damage people's lungs and eyes, and cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and toluene, released by the burning of oil-refining byproducts."

Three scientific developments are highlighted: First, researchers engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to carry vaccines against rabies and Nipah viruses in their saliva, successfully inoculating bats in laboratory settings through feeding interactions. This approach aims to prevent viral spillover from bats to humans. Second, studies reveal that large language model users adopt writing patterns, reasoning methods, and opinions from chatbots, potentially homogenizing human discourse. However, some researchers found certain writers maintained distinct personal styles after AI use. Third, missile damage to Iranian oil infrastructure caused pollutant-laden black rain in Tehran containing soot and carcinogenic chemicals like benzene and toluene from burning oil byproducts.

Read at Nature