Science News Roundup: Magnetic surgical robot makes international debut in Chile hospital; Oldest mosquito fossil comes with a bloodsucking surprise

The MARS surgical platform at the Luis Tisne hospital in Santiago allows surgeons to "attach a small magnet to organs, like the liver, and use robotic arms with high powered magnets on the patient’s belly to manipulate organs out of the way," according to Levita Magnetics, the California-based start-up that created robot. Oldest mosquito fossil comes with a bloodsucking surprise Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are killed annually by malaria and other diseases spread through the bite of mosquitoes, insects that date back to the age of dinosaurs.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Magnetic surgical robot makes international debut in Chile hospital

A robot that uses powerful magnets to perform less invasive and more efficient surgeries completed its first international procedure, a gallbladder removal, at a public hospital in Chile this week, according to the company that developed the technology. The MARS surgical platform at the Luis Tisne hospital in Santiago allows surgeons to "attach a small magnet to organs, like the liver, and use robotic arms with high powered magnets on the patient’s belly to manipulate organs out of the way," according to Levita Magnetics, the California-based start-up that created robot.

Oldest mosquito fossil comes with a bloodsucking surprise

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are killed annually by malaria and other diseases spread through the bite of mosquitoes, insects that date back to the age of dinosaurs. All of these bites are inflicted by females, which possess specialized mouth anatomy that their male counterparts lack. But it has not always been that way. Researchers said they have discovered the oldest-known fossils of mosquitoes - two males entombed in pieces of amber dating to 130 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and found near the town of Hammana in Lebanon. To their surprise, the male mosquitoes possessed elongated piercing-sucking mouthparts seen now only in females.