With so much carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by man-made activities, efforts are being made to minimize its pollution of the atmosphere and hopefully prevent it from worsening global warming and climate change.

The most ambitious approach towards controlling the CO2 saturation of the air is capturing and storing it underground. Norwegian company Northern Lights — of oil giants Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies — started pumping CO2 captured from industrial smokestacks in Europe into an undersea reservoir in the North Sea, CBS News reports.

Northern Lights’ carbon capture technology is a complex and costly process of liquefying captured CO2, shipping it to the Oygarden terminal near Bergen on Norway’s western coast, transferring it into large tanks, and then injecting the liquid CO2 through a 68-mile pipeline into the seabed 1.6 miles deep, according to CBS News.

Meanwhile, scientists at Japan’s Riken research institute have found that CO2 sharpens the vision and sense of smell of mosquitoes, helping them to find people to feed on.

The findings published in Scientific Reports were based on experiments by the Riken researchers for the purpose of developing mosquito repellents. Consumer goods company Kao Corp. announced the findings on 20 August.

While it is known that mosquitoes are able to detect humans through the CO2 they exhale, they also use visuals to home in on their victims.

In their lab experiments, the researchers observed that the insects “were more likely to track down striped patterns resembling human figures, approach odorous socks, and avoid the scent of herbs,” The Asahi Shimbun (TAS) reports.

“This study opens up new possibilities for developing novel mosquito-repellent materials,” said Aya Nanba, a researcher at the Kao Human Health Care Products Research Laboratory, according to TAS.