Fifteen years that the idea matured in their minds. “We were convinced that others would do it,” smile Nathalie and François Capitaine in their research lab on the Pessac campus (Gironde). After having lived in the meeting and Mauritius, “where mosquitoes pose a real health problem and where the coils of insecticide made us cough”, they took action. The ex-professor of physics and her husband, a specialist in polymers, have developed a protection that is no longer chemical but mechanical, which they have had validated by the WHO.
A natural phenomenon
With its conical perforations, the Mostiglass in rigid or semi-rigid polycarbonate also cools the surrounding air. “The air that rushes into the small holes is compressed because the outlet is narrower than the inlet. Result: it accelerates, expands, the pressure drops and the temperature too, it’s a natural phenomenon! “, explains Nathalie Capitaine who has noticed a drop of 4°C when it is 29°C outside. “Cooling only works when it is over 20°C. If you ventilate your house in winter, it won’t get any colder, it will just avoid turning up the heating”, specifies the couple of inventors.
Seventy Parisian crèches have already equipped themselves with the device and individuals are flocking. The couple, who filed the patent in 2018, will hire around ten people to continue producing in France, in Dax in the Landes. “Canada, Japan, Mozambique, Thailand… we are called from all over the world, there are mosquitoes everywhere! » Other factories might be born elsewhere to reduce transport costs “but maintaining low prices to remain accessible to all”.
