On Thursday, February 28, the Faculty of Science and Technology was 'abuzz' with information circulating through free public fora led by 1. the Alternative Energy Research Group (see here for highlights) and 2. the Natural Products Institute and Department of Life Sciences who's Science For Today session was dubbed "Minimizing Mosquito Mayhem: Science and Solutions.

The latter event catered to an audience of students, staff members, respective stakeholders and members of the public who were engaged on:

• the evolutionary biology of the mosquito and reasons for its success, efforts to eradicate/manage them over millennia, climate variations and UWI historical research on pests 
• the status of resistance of Aedes aegypti in Kingston, Jamaica
• the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) as a feasible alternative - the science behind the sterilization
• the strategy of the MoH to manage mosquitoes in Jamaica – a quick overview on capacity, surveillance, education, and SIT implementation plans in the future.

The panellists who were well received were as follows: Dwight Robinson  - HoD, Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, UWI Mona; Dr. Sheena Francis -  Research Fellow, Natural Products Institute (NPI), UWI Mona and Zika AIRS Project (ZAP) Jamaica; Dr. Johann Antoine - Research Scientist, International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences(ICENS), UWI Mona; and Mrs. Sherine Huntley Jones - Programme Manager, Vector Control Programme, MoH.

The Science for Today series continues in March with the next session focussed on the impact of Artificial Intelligence and Automation led by the Department of Computing. See upcoming events here: https://www.mona.uwi.edu/fst/calendar/month/2019-03.