Google helped release 3 million mosquitoes in Australia to reduce their population

A Google-backed mosquito control project in Australia successfully released around three million specially bred male mosquitoes and reduced populations of an invasive disease-carrying species by as much as 95%, according to a report by The Conversation. The findings are drawing renewed attention as Alphabet's Debug initiative seeks approval to release up to 32 million sterilised male mosquitoes in California and Florida to combat mosquito-borne diseases.Nigel Beebe, a professor at the University of Queensland, wrote in The Conversation that the trial showed releasing specially bred male mosquitoes can dramatically suppress populations of Aedes aegypti, an invasive species that spreads dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.How the Australian trial of Google's life sciences division workedThe work began in 2015, when Beebe's team traveled to Silicon Valley to meet scientists at Verily, Google's life sciences division.