Changespotting: Tiger-Stones and (impotent) mozzies

Scientists have engineered a strain of barren mosquitoes in a bid to stem the spread of diseases. Photo / Supplied

There's lions and Tiger-Stones and bears. Oh my! Well, you'll be thanking the middle one if you're following one of these efficient and environmentally beneficial brick roads in Holland. Tiger-Stone is the name of the contraption being used to lay down paved roads like carpet.

Aliens visiting our planet could be forgiven for misconstruing Facebook as some kind of earthling deity. And the hold it maintains over many individuals' social communication and daily rituals is about to become more comprehensive. Soon, if you're lucky enough to be exclusively invited, you can consolidate all your messaging interactions via Facebook potentially rendering other email providers redundant.

Allegedly, mosquitoes kill around two million people a year through the transmission of diseases like dengue fever. In a bid to reduce the population of mosquitoes, scientists have genetically modified a strain of males to be sterile. Once they are released into the wild it will not eradicate the species but should alleviate the associated death toll and give researchers breathing room to administer vaccines.