It’s a a technique that’s more commonly used to get images from the supersonic shock cones forming around test aircraft in wind tunnels, but now a group of scientists say they’ve captured the dynamics of a cough on film for the first time.
And yes…it looks absolutely disgusting but kinda cool at the same time.
So there’s a thing called Schlieren photography which involves shining collimated light past a knife edge onto a target, and variations in the refractive index of moving air create “shadows” of a sort in the image captured on film. It’s most often used to solve aeronautical air-flow problems, or weapons in action. Like shot fired from an AK47.
But the great Doctor Gary Settles from Penn State University and Julian Tang from Singapore tweaked the technique and created an image of the turbulent air stirred up by a cough, which is apparently a very unexplored phenomenon. They plan to use the technique to explore how coughs spread diseases like SARS and the flu.
This new science could end up having big health pay-offs in the long run but I’m focusing on the short term, so if this image means one thing to you it should be this: next time you think you have to cough around me, put your hand over your mouth!
Tags: atomic bomb cough, cough dynamics, Dr. Gary Settles, Oenn State University, Schlieren photography, worldgaming
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