Japanese restaurant does experiment showing how easily a virus spreads
Viruses are probably the oldest “living” things on this earth! Creatures have been battling viruses since, well, since humans! One of the difficult things about viruses is how small they are. Poisonous berries and snakes are easy to avoid because we can see them. Viruses are a bit trickier!
Since viruses are so small, it is easy to forget how simply they can travel on surfaces.
These tiny little menaces multiply and spread, all under our noses! Thankfully, with modern technology, we can see them a bit better and combat them. The issue arises, however, in our day to day since we don’t walk around with microscopes.
A Japanese restaurant set up an experiment to show how viruses spread.
Wanting to show how easily a virus can spread, NHK News worked to set up a controlled environment where people ate in order to demonstrate. Setting up a buffet-style dinner, the experiment began.
The culprit placed a large amount of invisible, fluorescent liquid on his hands and went about his business.
With a single contaminated individual now in the midst of the dinner party, the next step was to wait. Since the ink was invisible and nobody could tell who the “sick” one was, people went about dinner normally.
Walking up to the line, people exchanged flatware, silverware, and other utensils.
A buffet is rather communal by design. People share tongs in order to get the foods that they want. As people filled their plates, they sat down to eat, completely blind to the invisible ink.
After the meal, the entire room was plunged under ultraviolet light.
One of the coolest things about the experiment was the results! The entire room had been installed with bright UV lights that allowed the entire room to glow purple when the meal was over.
When the lights went on, the results were obvious.
Since the invisible ink showed up under UV light, when the lights went on to reveal their findings – it was shocking. Almost every shared surface was covered in the glowing liquid!
Handles, plates, and hands were covered in the dull blue glow of the “virus”.
It was obvious that everyone in the room had at least some contact with the liquid. Almost every single surface had some residue on it.
The results show us how easy it is to forget about our tiny enemies.
Mythbusters did a similar experiment a while ago with the same outcome. Humans aren’t evolved in a way to be able to responsibly stay safe in a contaminated environment. Seeing the fluorescent liquid staining everyone’s hands is proof of that!
What should we do?
Well, the best thing is to follow the advice of the professionals. Using gloves (while also not touching your face), washing your hands, and minimizing exposure is about the best that we can do as humans! Maybe if we could smell viruses it would be different!
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クルーズ船で感染拡大を招いたとされる接触感染がどのようにして起きるのか、ＮＨＫが専門家と共同で実験を行ったところ、ウイルスに見立てた塗料は多数の人が触るものを介して広がることが確認されました。https://t.co/exeyyRXQiD pic.twitter.com/NCHGyJyXRw
— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) May 8, 2020