Bart Knols: Cheese, dogs and a pill to kill mosquitoes and end malaria

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Prevodilac: Miloš Milosavljević Lektor: Mile Živković

(Mosquito buzzing)

(Zujanje komarca)

(Swat)

(Udarac)

Gotcha.

Imam te.

Mosquitoes.

Komarci. Mrzim ih.

I hate them.

Zar vi ne?

Don't you?

That awful buzzing sound at night around your ears

Taj grozan zvuk zujanja oko vaše glave noću

that drives you absolutely crazy?

koji vas potpuno izluđuje?

Znanje da on želi da zabode iglu u vašu kožu i isisa vam krv?

Knowing that she wants to stick a needle in your skin

and suck out your blood?

That's awful, right?

To je grozno, zar ne?

In fact, there's only one good thing I can think of when it gets to mosquitoes.

U stvari, ima samo jedna dobra stvar koje mogu da se setim

u vezi sa komaracima.

When they fly into our bedroom at night,

Kada ulete noću u našu sobu,

they prefer to bite my wife.

radije ujedu moju ženu.

(Laughter)

But that's fascinating, right?

Ali to je fascinantno, zar ne?

Why does she receive more bites than I do?

Zašto nju više ujedaju nego mene?

And the answer is smell,

I odgovor je miris, miris njenog tela.

the smell of her body.

I pošto svi imamo drugačiji miris i proizvodimo hemikalije

And since we all smell different and produce chemicals on our skin

u našoj koži koje ili privlače ili odbijaju komarce,

that either attract or repel mosquitoes,

some of us are just more attractive than others.

neki od nas su prosto privlačniji od drugih.

So my wife smells nicer than I do, or I just stink more than she does.

Tako moja žena miriše lepše nego ja

ili ja više smrdim od nje.

Either way, mosquitoes find us in the dark by sniffing us out. They smell us.

U svakom slučaju, komarci nas nađu u mraku tako što nas njuše.

Namirišu nas.

And during my PhD, I wanted to know exactly

I u toku mog doktorata, hteo sam da znam tačno

koje hemikalije iz naše kože komarci koriste,

what chemicals from our skin African malaria mosquitoes use

afrički malarični komarci, da nas nađu noću.

to track us down at night.

And there's a whole range of compounds that they do use.

I ima čitav niz jedinjenja koje koriste.

And this was not going to be an easy task.

Izgledalo je da to neće biti lak zadatak.

And therefore we set up various experiments.

I zbog toga, sproveli smo razne eksperimente.

Why did we set up these experiments?

Zašto smo sproveli ove eksperimente?

Because half the world's population

Zato što je polovina svetskog stanovništva pod rizikom

runs the risk of contracting a killer disease like malaria

da dobije smrtonosnu bolest kao što je malarija

through a simple mosquito bite.

putem običnog ujeda komarca.

Every 30 seconds, somewhere on this planet,

Svakih 30 sekundi negde na ovoj planeti

a child dies of malaria,

umre jedno dete od malarije i Pol Levi je jutros

and Paul Levy this morning, he was talking about the metaphor

govorio o metafori Boinga 727 koji se ruši u Sjedinjenim Državama.

of the 727 crashing into the United States.

U Africi imamo ekvivalent od sedam džambo džetova 747

Well, in Africa, we have the equivalent of seven jumbo 747s

crashing every day.

koji se ruše svakog dana.

But perhaps if we can attract these mosquitoes to traps,

Ali možda, ako bismo mogli da privučemo ove komarce u zamke,

bait it with our smell,

namamimo ih našim mirisom,

we may be able to stop transmission of disease.

možda ćemo uspeti da zaustavimo prenošenje zaraze.

Rešenje ove zagonetke nije bilo lako

Now, solving this puzzle was not an easy thing,

because we produce hundreds of different chemicals on the skin,

zato što proizvodimo stotine raznih hemikalija na koži,

but we undertook some remarkable experiments

ali smo sproveli neke neobične eksperimente

koji su nam omogućili da rešimo ovu zagonetku veoma brzo.

that managed us to resolve this puzzle very quickly indeed.

First, we observed that not all mosquito species

Prvo smo gledali da ne ujedaju sve vrste komaraca isti deo tela.

bite on the same part of the body.

Strange.

Čudno.

So we set up an experiment

Tako da smo izveli eksperiment

where we put a naked volunteer in a large cage,

gde smo stavili nagog dobrovoljca u veliki kavez

(Laughter)

and in that cage, we released mosquitoes

i u taj kavez pustili komarce

to see where they were biting on the body of that person.

da vidimo koji deo tela te osobe ujedaju.

And we found some remarkable differences.

I otkrili smo neke neobične razlike.

On the left here you see the bites

Ovde levo vidite ujede

holandskog malaričnog komarca na ovoj osobi.

by the Dutch malaria mosquito on this person.

They had a very strong preference for biting on the face.

Oni su veoma naginjali ka ujedanju lica.

In contrast, the African malaria mosquito

Nasuprot tome, afrički malarični komarac

je veoma naginjao ka ujedanju za članke i stopala ove osobe

had a very strong preference for biting the ankles and feet of this person.

And that, of course, we should have known all along,

i to je naravno trebalo već da znamo

because they're called mosqui-toes, you see?

jer se oni zovu "mosqui-toes" (toes - prsti na nogama), vidite? (Smeh)

(Laughter)

That's right.

Tako je. (Aplauz)

(Applause)

I tako smo počeli da se fokusiramo na miris stopala,

And so we started focusing on the smell of feet ...

on the smell of human feet,

na miris ljudskih stopala,

sve dok nismo naišli na neobičnu izjavu u literaturi

until we came across a remarkable statement in the literature

that said that cheese smells after feet

koja kaže da sir miriše na noge, a ne obrnuto.

rather than the reverse.

Think of it.

Razmislite o tome.

And this triggered us to do a remarkable experiment.

I ovo nas je podstaklo da napravimo neobičan eksperiment.

We tried, with a tiny little piece of Limburger cheese,

Probali smo, sa komadićem limburškog sira,

which smells badly after feet,

koji gadno smrdi na noge,

da privučemo afričke malarične komarce.

to attract African malaria mosquitoes.

And you know what? It worked.

I znate šta? Uspelo je.

U stvari, uspelo je tako dobro da sada imamo sintetičku mešavinu

In fact, it worked so well

that now we have a synthetic mixture of the aroma of Limburger cheese

arome limburškog sira koji smo koristili u Tanzaniji

that we're using in Tanzania

and has been shown there

i tamo se pokazalo da je dva do tri puta

to be two to three times more attractive to mosquitoes than humans.

privlačniji komarcima nego što su to ljudi.

Limburg, be proud of your cheese,

Limburg, budi ponosan na svoj sir,

as it is now used in the fight against malaria.

jer se on sada koristi u borbi protiv malarije.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

That's the cheese, just to show you.

Ovo je taj sir, samo da vam pokažem.

My second story is remarkable as well.

Moja druga priča je isto tako neobična.

It's about man's best friend. It's about dogs.

Ona je o čovekovom najboljem prijatelju. O psima.

And I will show you how we can use dogs in the fight against malaria.

I ja ću vam pokazati

kako možemo da koristimo pse u borbi protiv malarije.

One of the best ways of killing mosquitoes

Jedan od najboljih načina za ubijanje komaraca

is not to wait until they fly around like adults

nije da čekamo dok ne počnu da lete kao odrasli

i ujedaju ljude i prenose bolest,

and bite people and transmit disease.

It's to kill them when they're still in the water as larvae.

već da ih ubijemo dok se još nalaze u vodi kao larve.

Why?

Zašto? Jer su oni baš kao CIA.

Because they are just like the CIA.

In that pool of water, these larvae are concentrated.

U toj bari su ove larve koncentrisane.

They're all together there. They are immobile.

Sve zajedno su ovde. Nepokretne su.

They can't escape from that water.

Ne mogu da pobegnu iz te vode. Ne mogu da lete.

They can't fly.

And they're accessible.

I pristupačne su.

You can actually walk up to that pool and you can kill them there, right?

Možete da došetate do te bare i ubijete ih tu, zar ne?

So the problem that we face with this

Problem sa kojim se ovde suočavamo je taj da su,

is that, throughout the landscape, all these pools of water with the larvae,

širom predela, sve ove bare sa larvama

they are scattered all over the place,

razbacane na sve strane,

which makes it very hard for an inspector like this

što znatno otežava nadzorniku poput ovog

to actually find all these breeding sites and treat them with insecticides.

da nađe sva ova legla i poprska ih insekticidima.

I prošle godine smo razmišljali intenzivno kako da rešimo ovaj problem.

And last year we thought very, very hard, how can we resolve this problem?

Until we realized that just like us -- we have a unique smell --

Dok nismo shvatili

da kao što mi imamo jedinstven miris,

tako i larve komarca imaju vrlo jedinstven miris.

mosquito larvae also have a very unique smell.

And so we set up another crazy experiment,

I tako smo izveli još jedan ludi eksperiment,

because we collected the smell of these larvae,

zato što smo pokupili miris ovih larvi,

stavili ga na komade tkanine i onda uradili nešto vrlo neobično.

put it on pieces of cloth, and then did something very remarkable.

Here we have a bar with four holes

Ovde imamo gredu sa četiri rupe

and we put the smell of these larvae in the left hole.

i stavili smo miris larvi u levu rupu.

Oh, that was very quick.

O, to je bilo brzo.

And then you see the dog. It's called Tweed. It's a border collie.

I onda vidite psa. Zove se Tvid. On je Border Koli.

On pretražuje ove rupe i sada je već našao.

He's examining these holes and now he's got it already.

Vraća se da proveri kontrolne rupe ponovo,

He's going back to check the control holes again,

but he's coming back to the first one,

ali se vraća do prve,

i sada pamti taj miris,

and now he's locking into that smell,

which means that now, we can use dogs with these inspectors

što znači da sada možemo da koristimo pse

sa ovim nadzornicima da mnogo lakše nađemo

to much better find the breeding sites of mosquitoes in the field,

legla komaraca u polju

and therefore have a much bigger impact on malaria.

i tako imamo mnogo veći uticaj na malariju.

This lady is Ellen van der Zweep.

Ova dama je Elen van der Zvep.

She's one of the best dog trainers in the world,

Ona je jedan od najboljih dresera pasa na svetu

and she believes that we can do a lot more.

i ona veruje da možemo da uradimo mnogo više.

Pošto znamo takođe da ljudi koji nose parazite malarije

Since we also know that people that carry malaria parasites

smell different compared to people that are uninfected,

mirišu drugačije od ljudi koji nisu zaraženi,

she's convinced that we can train dogs to find people that carry the parasite.

ona je ubeđena da možemo da dresiramo pse

da nađu ljude koji nose parazite.

That means that in a population where malaria has gone down all the way

To znači da u populaciji u kojoj je malarija pobeđena

and there's few people remaining with parasites,

i malo je ljudi ostalo sa parazitima,

that the dogs can find these people,

psi mogu da nađu ove ljude,

we can treat them with antimalarial drugs and give the final blow to malaria.

možemo ih lečiti anti-malaričnim lekovima i zadati konačan udarac malariji.

Man's best friend in the fight against malaria.

Čovekov najbolji prijatelj u borbi protiv malarije.

Moja treća priča je možda još neobičnija.

My third story is perhaps even more remarkable ...

i nikada do danas nije pokazana javnosti.

and, I should say, has never been shown to the public until today.

(Audience cheers)

Yeah.

Da.

It's a crazy story, but I believe it's perhaps the best and ultimate revenge

Priča je luda, ali verujem da je to možda najbolja

i konačna osveta komarcima.

against mosquitoes ever.

In fact, people have told me

U stvari, ljudi su mi rekli da će sada uživati

that now they will enjoy being bitten by mosquitoes.

u ujedima komaraca.

And the question of course is,

I pitanje je naravno, zbog čega bi neko

what would make someone enjoy being bitten by mosquitoes?

uživao u ujedima komaraca?

And the answer I have right here ...

I odgovor

imam upravo ovde u džepu,

in my pocket --

(Laughter)

if I get it.

ako ga nađem.

It's a tablet.

To je tableta, obična tableta

A simple tablet,

and when I take it with water ...

i kada je popijem s vodom,

it does miracles.

ona čini čuda.

Thank you.

Hvala.

Now, let me show you how this works.

Da vam pokažem kako ovo radi.

Here in this box, I have a cage

Ovde u kutiji imam kavez

sa nekoliko stotina gladnih

with several hundred hungry female mosquitoes ...

ženki komaraca

(Laughter)

that I'm just about to release.

koje ću upravo pustiti. (Smeh)

(Laughter)

Just kidding, just kidding.

Šalim se, šalim se.

(Laughter)

What I'm going to show you is, I'm gonna stick my arm into it

Gurnuću ruku unutra

and I will show you how quickly they will bite.

i pokazaću vam koliko brzo će oni ujedati.

There we go.

Idemo.

Ne brinite, radim ovo stalno u laboratoriji.

Don't worry, I do this all the time in the lab.

There we go.

Tako. Okej.

OK.

Now, on the video --

Sada, na snimku, na video snimku,

on the video here,

I'm going to show you exactly the same thing,

pokazaću vam upravo istu stvar,

osim što se, ono što vam pokazujem na videu

except that what I'm showing you on the video

happened one hour after I took the tablet.

desilo jedan sat pošto sam popio tabletu.

Have a look.

Pogledajte. Ovo ne radi. Izvinite.

That doesn't work.

OK. Sorry about that.

I'm sticking in my arm, I'm giving them a big juicy blood meal,

Uvlačim ruku. Dajem im veliki sočni

I'm shaking them off, and we follow them through time

obrok od krvi, stresam ih sa ruke i pratimo ih kroz vreme

da bismo videli da se ovi komarci razboljevaju,

to see these mosquitoes get very, very sick indeed,

here shown in fast motion.

ovde je pokazano ubrzano

And three hours later, what we see at the bottom of the cage

i tri sata kasnije vidimo na dnu kaveza mrtve komarce,

is dead mosquitoes ...

potpuno mrtve komarce i reći ću, dame i gospodo,

very dead mosquitoes.

And I'm going to say, ladies and gentlemen,

we have swapped the cards with mosquitoes.

zamenili smo uloge sa komarcima.

They don't kill us. We kill them.

Ne ubijaju oni nas. Mi ubijamo njih.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

Sada - (Smeh) -

Now --

(Laughter)

Maastricht, be prepared.

Mastriht, budi spreman.

Pomislite šta možemo da uradimo sa ovim.

Now, think of what we can do with this.

We can actually use this to contain outbreaks

Možemo da iskoristimo ovo da zaustavimo izbijanje zaraza

of mosquito-born diseases, of epidemics, right?

koje potiču od komaraca, zar ne?

I još bolje, zamislite šta bi se desilo kad bi,

And better still, imagine what would happen

na jako velikom podučju, svi uzeli ovaj lek,

if, in a very large area, everyone would take these drugs, for just three weeks.

samo na tri nedelje

That would give us an opportunity

To bi nam dalo mogućnost da u stvari eliminišemo

to actually eliminate malaria as a disease.

malariju kao bolest.

Znači sir, psi i pilula za ubijanje komaraca.

So cheese, dogs and a pill to kill mosquitoes.

That's the kind of out-of-the-box science that I love doing ...

To je vrsta kreativne nauke koju ja volim da praktikujem,

za poboljšanje čovečanstva

for the betterment of mankind,

but especially for her,

ali naročito za nju, da bi ona mogla da odraste

so that she can grow up in a world without malaria.

u svetu bez malarije. Hvala vam. (Aplauz)

Thank you.

(Applause)