Silicon Valley is coming after bloodsuckers: Google parent company Alphabet Inc. has a plan to eliminate mosquitoes around the world through sterilization technology, according to Bloomberg. The company has begun sterilizing male mosquitoes in its labs and releasing them into the wild, where they can mate with females — but their offspring will never hatch. Through its unit Verily Life Sciences, Alphabet is foraying into healthcare and life sciences (watch, runtime: 1:43).

What does this mean for the planet? Nobody likes getting a mosquito bite, and these insects are known to play a key role in transferring deadly diseases, including malaria, between humans. That said: Mosquitoes are food for a number of species — and we as a species have done a particularly poor job when we’ve decided we could re-design nature. Expect some measure of ecological disruption.

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