This 17-Year-Old's Invention Prevents Spread of Germs on Planes
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If it feels like you get sick every time you travel, there's a scientific reason for that: planes are prime breeding grounds for germs. With so many passengers sharing the same air for hours, chances are high that one traveler's bacteria will find its way to someone else. But according to 17-year-old Raymond Wang, this doesn't have to happen. To prevent people from sniffling through their trips, he's created a fan that reduces air-sharing – and, consequently, disease-catching – on planes.
Related: Holiday Travel: The Simple Tricks to Not Getting Sick
Typically, air circulates throughout plane cabins before it leaves. "When we sneeze, the air gets swirled round multiple times before it has a chance to go out through the filter," Wang explains in a TED talk shared by The Independent. That's why many disease outbreaks have been linked to air travel. One man with bird flu, for example, once infected 17 people on a flight.
Wang's fan gets rid of this issue by filtering air out of the cabin before it has the chance to make the rounds, allowing people "personalized breathing zones." This would not only make people 55 times less likely to pick up pathogens but also save $3 trillion – the amount that a flu pandemic could cost the world, according to the World Bank.
Since there's already room on most planes for these fans, airlines could install them in one night if they wanted to. And we really hope they do soon, because we do not want to spend our summer vacations coughing and sneezing.
Learn more about the invention here.
This story originally appeared on Teen Vogue.
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