Human blood--it drives mosquitoes wild. Today Marlene Cimmons of
the National Science Foundation (NSF) spotlights chemical
ecologist Walter Leal, professor of entomology, University of
California, Davis, on the LiveScience Web site. This interesting
feature takes a behind-the-scenes look at Leal, a Brazilian-born
scientist trained in three countries: Brazil, Japan and the
United States. His research, partly funded by a NSF grant, has
received international acclaim. Last year he was elected a
Fellow of the 6000-member Entomological Society of America, a
prestigious honor reserved for only 10 or fewer scientists a
year. Leal, who focuses his research on how insects detect
smells, is not shy about being a human subject. Or human
pincushion. Cimmons wrote about how Leal "rolled up his sleeves"
when he and his colleagues were looking for the substance that
would lure mosquitoes into a blood meal. "And they found it--
nonanal, a substance made by humans and birds that creates a
powerful scent that Culex mosquitoes f