Slow-Motion Sneezing Is Totally Gross But Helps Explain How We Get Sick
To better understand how this process works – the physics of a sneeze, if you will – scientists in the US have filmed high-speed videos of two people sneezing about 50 times. What they’ve found is something we didn’t know before: sneeze droplets are formed within a “high-propulsion sneeze cloud” outside of the mouth and the respiratory tract.
While scientists don’t know for sure how far a sneeze can spread, Bourouiba and her team discovered last year that sneezes can transport pathogen-carrying droplets much further than had previously been suspected – and not only in larger droplets that you can see or feel. Over the course of several minutes, smaller droplets hanging in the air in gas form can travel the length of a room and even reach ventilation ducts at ceiling heights.
Source: Science Alert
