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This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

It might seem obvious that the primary function of insect repellents like Diet is to, well, repel.

But if you bring a pipette tip full of Diet right up to a mosquito, as Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Chris Potter did,

she just ignores it.

So that really, so that really, you know,

it does demonstrate that, you know, D.T by itself, you know, it's not repellent, and it's not going to

make them fly away. Potter's team also genetically engineered Anophiles mosquitoes to make their

antennae light up when their olfactory neurons picked up on a scent.

But when they spritz the antennae with Diet and other so-called synthetic repellents,

even at 100% strength, there just was no response.

So that was kind of a surprise to us.

Because going into this, we thought, okay, they're insect repellents.

They're going to activate neurons.

That's how they repel mosquitoes.

And so then, you know, the question is, well, what are they actually doing? The researchers kept experimenting with those genetically modified

mosquitoes to find out. A whiff of molecules commonly found on human skin made the mosquitoes

and tennie light up like a Christmas tree, Potter says. So they do sense us, which you've likely experienced.

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