University of Utah biologists invented a chemical-free, hairdryer-like device – the LouseBuster – and conducted a study showing it eradicates head lice infestations on children by exterminating the eggs or "nits" and killing enough lice to prevent them from reproducing.

"Each year, millions of children are infested with head lice, a condition known as pediculosis, which is responsible for tens of millions of lost school days," the study's authors write. "Head lice have evolved resistance to many of the currently used pediculicides [insecticide shampoos]. … Hot air is an effective, safe treatment and one to which lice are unlikely to evolve resistance."

The device blows warm air through a flexible hose, which has a rake-like hand piece on the end. It apparently kills lice and nits by drying them out, not by heating them. Clayton urges parents not to use hair dryers to try to kill head lice.

"We don't want kids getting burned by parents who think it's the heat" that kills lice, he says. "This thing is actually cooler than a hair dryer, but requires twice as much air flow, and the special hand piece is critical because, unless you expose the roots of the hair, it doesn't work. And it's difficult to do that with a regular comb."

Some of the scientists' relatives got infested during the study. Clayton's kids, Mimi and Roger, volunteered to be infested with lice and then were treated successfully.

"They like to shock their friends by telling them they served as guinea pigs in their dad's research," Clayton says. "I'm waiting for the authorities to show up. They haven't yet."

Another researcher had a relative participate involuntarily. In the study's acknowledgements, Atkin says he "wishes to apologize to his wife (again) for accidentally giving her head lice."