How germs travel on planes -- and how we can stop them | Raymond Wang

Translator: Klavdija Cernilogar Reviewer: Nika Kotnik

Can I get a show of hands --

Prosim, dvignite roke,

how many of you in this room have been on a plane in this past year?

če ste v preteklem letu leteli z letalom.

That's pretty good.

Kar precej vas je.

Well, it turns out that you share that experience

No, to izkušnjo ste v enem letu delili

with more than three billion people every year.

z več kot tremi milijardami ljudi.

And when we put so many people in all these metal tubes

In ko toliko ljudi v teh kovinskih ceveh

that fly all over the world,

leti po vsem svetu,

sometimes, things like this can happen

se lahko zgodi kaj takega

and you get a disease epidemic.

in pride do izbruha bolezni.

I first actually got into this topic

Stvar me je začela zanimati,

when I heard about the Ebola outbreak last year.

ko sem lani slišal za izbruh ebole.

And it turns out that,

Izkazalo se je,

although Ebola spreads through these more range-limited,

da čeprav se ebola širi po omejenih območjih

large-droplet routes,

in preko večjih kapljic,

there's all these other sorts of diseases

obstajajo druge vrste bolezni,

that can be spread in the airplane cabin.

ki se lahko širijo po letalski kabini.

The worst part is, when we take a look at some of the numbers,

Če pogledamo nekaj številk,

it's pretty scary.

je slika precej strašljiva.

So with H1N1,

Recimo virus H1N1,

there was this guy that decided to go on the plane

neki tip je z njim šel na letalo

and in the matter of a single flight

in na enem samem letu

actually spread the disease to 17 other people.

se je okužilo še 17 ljudi.

And then there was this other guy with SARS,

Pa še nekdo, okužen s SARS-om,

who managed to go on a three-hour flight

ta je na triurnem letu

and spread the disease to 22 other people.

okužil še 22 drugih.

That's not exactly my idea of a great superpower.

Temu jaz ne bi rekel dobra nadnaravna moč.

When we take a look at this, what we also find

Ob tem ugotovimo tudi,

is that it's very difficult to pre-screen for these diseases.

da je te bolezni težko vnaprej ugotoviti.

So when someone actually goes on a plane,

Ko se torej nekdo vkrca na letalo,

they could be sick

je morda bolan

and they could actually be in this latency period

in je morda v fazi,

in which they could actually have the disease

ko ima bolezen,

but not exhibit any symptoms,

a ne kaže simptomov,

and they could, in turn, spread the disease

lahko pa bolezen širi

to many other people in the cabin.

na druge ljudi v letalu.

How that actually works is that right now

To se zgodi zato,

we've got air coming in from the top of the cabin

ker v kabino prihaja zrak z vrha

and from the side of the cabin, as you see in blue.

in s strani, kot vidite v modrem.

And then also, that air goes out through these very efficient filters

Ven pa gre skozi te zelo učinkovite filtre,

that eliminate 99.97 percent of pathogens near the outlets.

ki odstranijo 99,97% patogenov blizu odvodov.

What happens right now, though,

Trenutno to poteka

is that we have this mixing airflow pattern.

po vzorcu mešanja zračnih tokov.

So if someone were to actually sneeze,

Če nekdo kihne,

that air would get swirled around multiple times

bo zrak večkrat zaokrožil,

before it even has a chance to go out through the filter.

preden bo odstranjen skozi filter.

So I thought: clearly, this is a pretty serious problem.

Pomislil sem: to je precej resen problem.

I didn't have the money to go out and buy a plane,

Nisem imel denarja, da bi kupil letalo,

so I decided to build a computer instead.

zato sem sestavil računalnik.

It actually turns out that with computational fluid dynamics,

Izkazalo se je, da z računalniškim modelom toka

what we're able to do is create these simulations

lahko poustvarimo simulacije,

that give us higher resolutions

ki so natančnejše,

than actually physically going in and taking readings in the plane.

kot če bi izvedli meritve v letalu samem.

And so how, essentially, this works is you would start out

To deluje tako: začnemo

with these 2D drawings --

z dvodimenzionalnimi risbami,

these are floating around in technical papers around the Internet.

te so na voljo na tehničnih papirjih na internetu.

I take that and then I put it into this 3D-modeling software,

Vzamem jih in uporabim program 3D modela,

really building that 3D model.

prav zgradim ta model.

And then I divide that model that I just built into these tiny pieces,

Potem pa ga razdelim na majcene delce,

essentially meshing it so that the computer can better understand it.

na tak način, da lahko računalnik bolje razume model.

And then I tell the computer where the air goes in and out of the cabin,

Računalniku povem, kje zrak pride v kabino in kje gre ven,

throw in a bunch of physics

dodam ščepec fizike

and basically sit there and wait until the computer calculates the simulation.

in čakam, da računalnik napravi simulacijo.

So what we get, actually, with the conventional cabin is this:

V običajni kabini dobimo tale rezultat:

you'll notice the middle person sneezing,

če oseba v sredini kihne,

and we go "Splat!" -- it goes right into people's faces.

"pljusk", to gre naravnost v obraze drugih.

It's pretty disgusting.

Precej ogabno.

From the front, you'll notice those two passengers

Od spredaj, kot vidite, potnika

sitting next to the central passenger

poleg tistega v sredini

not exactly having a great time.

ne uživata najbolj.

And when we take a look at that from the side,

Poglejmo s strani:

you'll also notice those pathogens spreading across the length of the cabin.

patogeni se širijo vzdolž kabine.

The first thing I thought was, "This is no good."

Pomislil sem: "To ni dobro."

So I actually conducted more than 32 different simulations

Zato sem napravil preko 32 različnih simulacij

and ultimately, I came up with this solution right here.

in prišel do te rešitve.

This is what I call a -- patent pending -- Global Inlet Director.

To je - če bo patentirano - usmerjevalec vhoda zraka.

With this, we're able to reduce pathogen transmission

S tem lahko prenos patogenov zmanjšamo

by about 55 times,

za 55-krat,

and increase fresh-air inhalation by about 190 percent.

vnos svežega zraka pa povečamo za okoli 190 odstotkov.

So how this actually works

To dosežemo tako,

is we would install this piece of composite material

da tale kos materiala

into these existing spots that are already in the plane.

namestimo na ta že obstoječa mesta na letalu.

So it's very cost-effective to install

To je cenovno učinkovito

and we can do this directly overnight.

in se lahko napravi čez noč.

All we have to do is put a couple of screws in there and you're good to go.

Potrebujemo samo nekaj vijakov.

And the results that we get are absolutely amazing.

Rezultati pa so neverjetni.

Instead of having those problematic swirling airflow patterns,

Namesto težavnih vrtincev zraka

we can create these walls of air

dobimo te zračne zidove,

that come down in-between the passengers

ki pridejo med potnike

to create personalized breathing zones.

in ustvarijo osebne cone dihanja.

So you'll notice the middle passenger here is sneezing again,

Tule sredinski potnik spet kihne,

but this time, we're able to effectively push that down

a tokrat lahko zrak potisnemo navzdol

to the filters for elimination.

do filtrov za izhod.

And same thing from the side,

Enako velja s strani,

you'll notice we're able to directly push those pathogens down.

vidite, kako patogene potisnemo navzdol.

So if you take a look again now at the same scenario

Poglejmo isti scenarij

but with this innovation installed,

z vstavljeno inovacijo,

you'll notice the middle passenger sneezes,

ko sredinski potnik kihne,

and this time, we're pushing that straight down into the outlet

gre zrak naravnost do izhoda

before it gets a chance to infect any other people.

in nima časa okužiti drugih.

So you'll notice the two passengers sitting next to the middle guy

Potnika poleg osebe v sredini

are breathing virtually no pathogens at all.

ne vdihujeta praktično nobenih patogenov.

Take a look at that from the side as well,

Poglejmo s strani,

you see a very efficient system.

vidite, kako učinkovit je sistem.

And in short, with this system, we win.

Skratka, s tem sistemom zmagamo.

When we take a look at what this means,

Poglejmo, kaj to pomeni.

what we see is that this not only works if the middle passenger sneezes,

Ne deluje samo, če kihne potnik v sredini.

but also if the window-seat passenger sneezes

Deluje tudi pri potniku ob oknu

or if the aisle-seat passenger sneezes.

ter tistem ob prehodu.

And so with this solution, what does this mean for the world?

Kaj ta rešitev pomeni za svet?

Well, when we take a look at this

Če to prenesemo

from the computer simulation into real life,

z računalnika v realnost,

we can see with this 3D model that I built over here,

lahko s tem 3D modelom tule,

essentially using 3D printing,

z uporabo 3D tiskanja,

we can see those same airflow patterns coming down,

ugotovimo enak vzorec zračnih tokov navzdol

right to the passengers.

do potnikov.

In the past, the SARS epidemic actually cost the world

Epidemija SARS-a je svet stala

about 40 billion dollars.

okoli 40 milijard dolarjev.

And in the future,

V prihodnje

a big disease outbreak could actually cost the world

bi velik izbruh bolezni svet lahko stal

in excess of three trillion dollars.

preko tri bilijone dolarjev.

So before, it used to be that you had to take an airplane out of service

V preteklosti je bilo treba letalo vzeti iz prometa

for one to two months,

za mesec ali dva,

spend tens of thousands of man hours and several million dollars

porabiti na desettisoče delovnih ur in več milijonov dolarjev,

to try to change something.

da bi kaj spremenili.

But now, we're able to install something essentially overnight

Zdaj lahko novost namestimo čez noč

and see results right away.

in takoj vidimo rezultate.

So it's really now a matter of taking this through to certification,

Zdaj mora poskus dobiti certifikat,

flight testing,

biti testiran med letom,

and going through all of these regulatory approvals processes.

iti skozi postopke odobritve.

But it just really goes to show that sometimes the best solutions

A to je primer, da so včasih najboljše rešitve

are the simplest solutions.

najbolj enostavne.

And two years ago, even,

Še pred dvema letoma

this project would not have happened,

se ta projekt ne bi zgodil,

just because the technology then wouldn't have supported it.

ker ga tehnologija ne bi dovoljevala.

But now with advanced computing

Z naprednim programiranjem

and how developed our Internet is,

ter z razvojem interneta

it's really the golden era for innovation.

pa smo v zlati dobi inovacij.

And so the question I ask all of you today is: why wait?

Zato vas vprašam: Zakaj čakamo?

Together, we can build the future today.

Skupaj lahko zgradimo prihodnost že danes.

Thanks.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(aplavz)