Fair or not, airplanes have a reputation for germs. However, there are ways to minimize the risks.
Fair or not, airplanes have a reputation for germs. However, there are ways to minimize the risks.
Historic research based on group movements of humans and animals suggest three simple rules:
- move away from those that are too close.
- move toward those that are far away.
- match the direction of the movement of their neighbors.
This research is especially used for air travel where there is an increased risk for contagious infection or disease, such as the recent worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 disease.
"Airlines use several zones in boarding," said Ashok Srinivasan, a professor in the Department of Computer Science University of West Florida. "When boarding a plane, people are blocked and forced to stand near the person putting luggage in the bin — people are very close to each other. This problem is exacerbated when many zones are used. Deplaning is much smoother and quicker — there isn't as much time to get infected."
Read more at University of Texas at Austin, Texas Advanced Computing Center
Image: Frontera is the fifth most powerful supercomputer in the world and fastest academic supercomputer, according to the November 2019 rankings of the Top500 organization. Frontera is located at the Texas Advanced Computing Center and supported by National Science Foundation. (Credit: TACC)
