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TED, Raymond Wang: How germs travel on planes — and how we can stop them

Raymond Wang: How germs travel on planes — and how we can stop them

00:12Can I get a show of hands -- how many of you in this room have been on a plane in this past year? That's pretty good. Well, it turns out that you share that experience with more than three billion people every year. And when we put so many people in all these metal tubes that fly all over the world, sometimes, things like this can happen and you get a disease epidemic.

00:36I first actually got into this topic when I heard about the Ebola outbreak last year. And it turns out that,although Ebola spreads through these more range-limited, large-droplet routes, there's all these other sorts of diseases that can be spread in the airplane cabin. The worst part is, when we take a look at some of the numbers, it's pretty scary. So with H1N1, there was this guy that decided to go on the planeand in the matter of a single flight actually spread the disease to 17 other people. And then there was this other guy with SARS, who managed to go on a three-hour flight and spread the disease to 22 other people. That's not exactly my idea of a great superpower.

01:34How that actually works is that right now we've got air coming in from the top of the cabin and from the side of the cabin, as you see in blue. And then also, that air goes out through these very efficient filtersthat eliminate 99.97 percent of pathogens near the outlets. What happens right now, though, is that we have this mixing airflow pattern. So if someone were to actually sneeze, that air would get swirled around multiple times before it even has a chance to go out through the filter. So I thought: clearly, this is a pretty serious problem.

02:06I didn't have the money to go out and buy a plane, so I decided to build a computer instead. It actually turns out that with computational fluid dynamics, what we're able to do is create these simulations that give us higher resolutions than actually physically going in and taking readings in the plane. And so how, essentially, this works is you would start out with these 2D drawings -- these are floating around in technical papers around the Internet. I take that and then I put it into this 3D-modeling software, really building that 3D model. And then I divide that model that I just built into these tiny pieces, essentially meshing it so that the computer can better understand it. And then I tell the computer where the air goes in and out of the cabin, throw in a bunch of physics and basically sit there and wait until the computer calculates the simulation.

02:55So what we get, actually, with the conventional cabin is this: you'll notice the middle person sneezing,and we go "Splat!" -- it goes right into people's faces. It's pretty disgusting. From the front, you'll notice those two passengers sitting next to the central passenger not exactly having a great time. And when we take a look at that from the side, you'll also notice those pathogens spreading across the length of the cabin.

03:21The first thing I thought was, "This is no good." So I actually conducted more than 32 different simulations and ultimately, I came up with this solution right here. This is what I call a -- patent pending -- Global Inlet Director. With this, we're able to reduce pathogen transmission by about 55 times, and increase fresh-air inhalation by about 190 percent.

03:41So how this actually works is we would install this piece of composite material into these existing spots that are already in the plane. So it's very cost-effective to install and we can do this directly overnight. All we have to do is put a couple of screws in there and you're good to go. And the results that we get are absolutely amazing. Instead of having those problematic swirling airflow patterns, we can create these walls of air that come down in-between the passengers to create personalized breathing zones.

04:08So you'll notice the middle passenger here is sneezing again, but this time, we're able to effectively push that down to the filters for elimination. And same thing from the side, you'll notice we're able to directly push those pathogens down. So if you take a look again now at the same scenario but with this innovation installed, you'll notice the middle passenger sneezes, and this time, we're pushing that straight down into the outlet before it gets a chance to infect any other people. So you'll notice the two passengers sitting next to the middle guy are breathing virtually no pathogens at all. Take a look at that from the side as well, you see a very efficient system.

04:46And in short, with this system, we win. When we take a look at what this means, what we see is that this not only works if the middle passenger sneezes, but also if the window-seat passenger sneezes or if the aisle-seat passenger sneezes.

05:02And so with this solution, what does this mean for the world? Well, when we take a look at this from the computer simulation into real life, we can see with this 3D model that I built over here, essentially using 3D printing, we can see those same airflow patterns coming down, right to the passengers. In the past, the SARS epidemic actually cost the world about 40 billion dollars. And in the future, a big disease outbreak could actually cost the world in excess of three trillion dollars. So before, it used to be that you had to take an airplane out of service for one to two months, spend tens of thousands of man hours and several million dollars to try to change something. But now, we're able to install something essentially overnight and see results right away.

05:48So it's really now a matter of taking this through to certification, flight testing, and going through all of these regulatory approvals processes. But it just really goes to show that sometimes the best solutionsare the simplest solutions. And two years ago, even, this project would not have happened, just because the technology then wouldn't have supported it. But now with advanced computing and how developed our Internet is, it's really the golden era for innovation.

06:16And so the question I ask all of you today is: why wait? Together, we can build the future today.

06:22Thanks.

06:23(Applause)

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Raymond Wang: How germs travel on planes — and how we can stop them Raymond Wang: Wie Keime in Flugzeugen reisen - und wie wir sie stoppen können Raymond Wang: Πώς ταξιδεύουν τα μικρόβια στα αεροπλάνα - και πώς μπορούμε να τα σταματήσουμε Raymond Wang: Cómo viajan los gérmenes en los aviones y cómo podemos detenerlos Raymond Wang : Comment les germes voyagent dans les avions - et comment nous pouvons les arrêter Raymond Wang: Come viaggiano i germi in aereo e come possiamo fermarli レイモンド・ワン細菌は飛行機でどのように移動するのか？ Raymond Wang: Kaip mikrobai keliauja lėktuvais ir kaip juos sustabdyti Raymond Wang: Jak zarazki przemieszczają się w samolotach - i jak możemy je powstrzymać? Raymond Wang: Como é que os germes viajam nos aviões - e como podemos impedi-los Раймонд Ванг: Как микробы путешествуют в самолетах - и как мы можем их остановить Raymond Wang: Mikroplar uçaklarda nasıl seyahat ediyor - ve onları nasıl durdurabiliriz? Реймонд Ванг: Як мікроби подорожують літаками - і як ми можемо їх зупинити 雷蒙德-王病菌是如何在飞机上传播的？雷蒙德-王病菌是如何在飞机上传播的？

00:12Can I get a show of hands -- how many of you in this room have been on a plane in this past year? 00: 12 ¿Puedo obtener una muestra de manos? ¿Cuántos de ustedes en esta sala han estado en un avión el año pasado? That's pretty good. Well, it turns out that you share that experience with more than three billion people every year. And when we put so many people in all these metal tubes that fly all over the world, sometimes, things like this can happen and you get a disease epidemic. Y cuando colocamos tantas personas en todos estos tubos metálicos que vuelan por todo el mundo, a veces, esto puede suceder y se produce una epidemia de enfermedades.

00:36I first actually got into this topic when I heard about the Ebola outbreak last year. 00: 36 Empecé por primera vez en este tema cuando me enteré del brote de ébola el año pasado. 00: 36J'ai abordé ce sujet pour la première fois lorsque j'ai entendu parler de l'épidémie d'Ebola l'année dernière. And it turns out that,although Ebola spreads through these more range-limited, large-droplet routes, there's all these other sorts of diseases that can be spread in the airplane cabin. Y resulta que, aunque el ébola se propaga a través de estas rutas de gotitas de gran tamaño y con un rango limitado, existe todo otro tipo de enfermedades que pueden propagarse en la cabina del avión. The worst part is, when we take a look at some of the numbers, it's pretty scary. La peor parte es que, cuando echamos un vistazo a algunos de los números, da bastante miedo. So with H1N1, there was this guy that decided to go on the planeand in the matter of a single flight actually spread the disease to 17 other people. Así que con el H1N1, hubo un tipo que decidió seguir el plan y, en el caso de un solo vuelo, propagó la enfermedad a otras 17 personas. 因此，对于 H1N1 流感，有一个人决定乘坐飞机，而在一次飞行中，实际上将疾病传播给了其他 17 个人。 And then there was this other guy with SARS, who managed to go on a three-hour flight and spread the disease to 22 other people. Y luego estaba este otro tipo con SARS, que logró tomar un vuelo de tres horas y propagó la enfermedad a otras 22 personas. 还有一个患有 SARS 的人，他设法乘坐 3 小时的航班，将疾病传播给了另外 22 个人。 That's not exactly my idea of a great superpower. Dat is niet bepaald mijn idee van een grote superkracht. 这不完全是我心目中的伟大超级大国。

01:14When we take a look at this, what we also find is that it's very difficult to pre-screen for these diseases.So when someone actually goes on a plane, they could be sick and they could actually be in this latency period in which they could actually have the disease but not exhibit any symptoms, and they could, in turn, spread the disease to many other people in the cabin. 01:14当我们看这个时，我们还发现很难预先筛查这些疾病。所以当有人真正坐飞机时，他们可能生病了，他们实际上可能处于这个潜伏期他们实际上可能患有这种疾病，但没有表现出任何症状，反过来，他们也可能将这种疾病传播给机舱内的许多其他人。

01:34How that actually works is that right now we've got air coming in from the top of the cabin and from the side of the cabin, as you see in blue. 01: 34 Lo que realmente funciona es que ahora mismo tenemos aire entrando desde la parte superior de la cabina y desde el lado de la cabina, como se ve en azul. 01:34 实际工作原理是，现在空气从机舱顶部和机舱侧面进入，如蓝色所示。 And then also, that air goes out through these very efficient filtersthat eliminate 99.97 percent of pathogens near the outlets. Y luego, también, el aire sale a través de estos filtros muy eficientes que eliminan el 99.97 por ciento de los patógenos cerca de las salidas. 然后，空气通过这些非常高效的过滤器排出，可以消除出口附近 99.97% 的病原体。 What happens right now, though, is that we have this mixing airflow pattern. Sin embargo, lo que sucede ahora mismo es que tenemos este patrón de flujo de aire de mezcla. 但现在发生的情况是，我们有这种混合气流模式。 So if someone were to actually sneeze, that air would get swirled around multiple times before it even has a chance to go out through the filter. Entonces, si alguien realmente estornudara, ese aire se arremolinaría varias veces antes de que incluso tuviera la oportunidad de salir por el filtro. Donc, si quelqu'un éternuait, cet air serait tourbillonné plusieurs fois avant même d'avoir une chance de sortir à travers le filtre. 因此，如果有人真的打喷嚏，空气在有机会通过过滤器出去之前就会旋转多次。 So I thought: clearly, this is a pretty serious problem. Así que pensé: claro, este es un problema bastante serio. 所以我想：显然，这是一个非常严重的问题。

02:06I didn't have the money to go out and buy a plane, so I decided to build a computer instead. 02:06我没有钱出去买飞机，所以我决定建造一台电脑。 It actually turns out that with computational fluid dynamics, what we're able to do is create these simulations that give us higher resolutions than actually physically going in and taking readings in the plane. Resulta que, con la dinámica de fluidos computacional, lo que podemos hacer es crear estas simulaciones que nos dan resoluciones más altas que las que realmente van físicamente y toman lecturas en el plano. 事实上，通过计算流体动力学，我们能够做的是创建这些模拟，为我们提供比实际物理进入并在平面上读取读数更高的分辨率。 And so how, essentially, this works is you would start out with these 2D drawings -- these are floating around in technical papers around the Internet. 因此，本质上，它是如何工作的，你可以从这些 2D 绘图开始——这些绘图在互联网上的技术论文中流传。 I take that and then I put it into this 3D-modeling software, really building that 3D model. 我将其放入 3D 建模软件中，真正构建了 3D 模型。 And then I divide that model that I just built into these tiny pieces, essentially meshing it so that the computer can better understand it. Y luego divido ese modelo que acabo de construir en estas pequeñas piezas, esencialmente uniéndolo para que la computadora pueda entenderlo mejor. Et puis je divise ce modèle que je viens de construire en ces minuscules morceaux, en le maillant essentiellement pour que l'ordinateur puisse mieux le comprendre. En dan verdeel ik dat model dat ik zojuist in deze kleine stukjes heb gebouwd, in wezen in elkaar grijpende zodat de computer het beter kan begrijpen. E então eu divido esse modelo que acabei de construir nessas pequenas partes, essencialmente mesclando-o para que o computador possa entendê-lo melhor. А затем я делю эту модель, которую только что построил, на эти крошечные кусочки, по сути, создавая сетку, чтобы компьютер мог лучше ее понять. 然后我将刚刚构建的模型划分为这些小块，本质上是对其进行网格划分，以便计算机可以更好地理解它。 And then I tell the computer where the air goes in and out of the cabin, throw in a bunch of physics and basically sit there and wait until the computer calculates the simulation. Y luego le digo a la computadora dónde entra y sale el aire de la cabina, agrega un montón de física y básicamente se sienta allí y espera hasta que la computadora calcule la simulación. 然后我告诉计算机空气进出机舱的位置，输入一堆物理知识，然后基本上坐在那里等待计算机计算模拟。

02:55So what we get, actually, with the conventional cabin is this: you'll notice the middle person sneezing,and we go "Splat!" 02:55Так что в обычной кабине мы получаем следующее: вы замечаете, что средний человек чихает, и мы говорим "Splat!". 02:55实际上，我们在传统客舱中得到的是这样的：你会注意到中间的人打喷嚏，然后我们就“啪！” -- it goes right into people's faces. ——它直接出现在人们的脸上。 It's pretty disgusting. 这真是太恶心了。 From the front, you'll notice those two passengers sitting next to the central passenger not exactly having a great time. 从前面看，您会注意到坐在中间乘客旁边的那两名乘客并没有玩得很开心。 And when we take a look at that from the side, you'll also notice those pathogens spreading across the length of the cabin. 当我们从侧面观察时，您还会注意到这些病原体遍布整个机舱。

03:21The first thing I thought was, "This is no good." 03:21我首先想到的是，“这不好。” So I actually conducted more than 32 different simulations and ultimately, I came up with this solution right here. 所以我实际上进行了超过 32 次不同的模拟，最终我在这里提出了这个解决方案。 This is what I call a -- patent pending -- Global Inlet Director. 这就是我所说的——正在申请专利——全球入口导向器。 With this, we're able to reduce pathogen transmission by about 55 times, and increase fresh-air inhalation by about 190 percent. 这样，我们就能将病原体传播减少约 55 倍，并将新鲜空气吸入量增加约 190%。

03:41So how this actually works is we would install this piece of composite material into these existing spots that are already in the plane. 03: 41Así que esto realmente funciona es que instalaríamos esta pieza de material compuesto en estos lugares existentes que ya están en el avión. 03:41因此，这实际上是如何工作的，我们会将这块复合材料安装到飞机上现有的这些点中。 So it's very cost-effective to install and we can do this directly overnight. 所以安装起来非常划算，我们可以直接在一夜之间完成。 All we have to do is put a couple of screws in there and you're good to go. Todo lo que tenemos que hacer es poner un par de tornillos allí y listo. 我们所要做的就是在里面装上几个螺丝，然后就可以开始了。 And the results that we get are absolutely amazing. 我们得到的结果绝对是惊人的。 Instead of having those problematic swirling airflow patterns, we can create these walls of air that come down in-between the passengers to create personalized breathing zones. En lugar de tener esos patrones problemáticos de flujo de aire en remolino, podemos crear estas paredes de aire que se interponen entre los pasajeros para crear zonas de respiración personalizadas. 我们可以创建这些空气墙，在乘客之间下降，以创建个性化的呼吸区域，而不是那些有问题的旋转气流模式。

04:08So you'll notice the middle passenger here is sneezing again, but this time, we're able to effectively push that down to the filters for elimination. 04: 08 Entonces, notará que el pasajero medio está estornudando nuevamente, pero esta vez, podemos empujar eso hacia los filtros para eliminarlos. 04:08所以你会注意到这里中间的乘客又打喷嚏了，但这一次，我们能够有效地将其推送到过滤器以消除。 And same thing from the side, you'll notice we're able to directly push those pathogens down. 从侧面看也是同样的事情，你会注意到我们能够直接将这些病原体压下去。 So if you take a look again now at the same scenario but with this innovation installed, you'll notice the middle passenger sneezes, and this time, we're pushing that straight down into the outlet before it gets a chance to infect any other people. Así que si vuelves a mirar el mismo escenario ahora, pero con esta innovación instalada, notarás que el pasajero medio estornuda, y esta vez, lo estamos introduciendo en la salida antes de que tenga la oportunidad de infectar a cualquier otro gente. 因此，如果您现在再看一下相同的场景，但安装了这项创新，您会注意到中间的乘客打喷嚏，而这一次，我们将其直接推入出口，以免它有机会感染任何其他人人们。 So you'll notice the two passengers sitting next to the middle guy are breathing virtually no pathogens at all. 所以你会注意到坐在中间那个人旁边的两名乘客几乎没有呼吸任何病原体。 Take a look at that from the side as well, you see a very efficient system. 从侧面看一下，你会看到一个非常高效的系统。

04:46And in short, with this system, we win. 04: 46Y en definitiva, con este sistema, ganamos. When we take a look at what this means, what we see is that this not only works if the middle passenger sneezes, but also if the window-seat passenger sneezes or if the aisle-seat passenger sneezes. 当我们看看这意味着什么时，我们发现这不仅适用于中间乘客打喷嚏的情况，而且适用于靠窗座位的乘客打喷嚏或过道座位的乘客打喷嚏的情况。

05:02And so with this solution, what does this mean for the world? 05:02那么有了这个解决方案，这对世界意味着什么？ Well, when we take a look at this from the computer simulation into real life, we can see with this 3D model that I built over here, essentially using 3D printing, we can see those same airflow patterns coming down, right to the passengers. 好吧，当我们从计算机模拟到现实生活中观察这一点时，我们可以看到，通过我在这里构建的 3D 模型（本质上是使用 3D 打印），我们可以看到相同的气流模式向下流向乘客。 In the past, the SARS epidemic actually cost the world about 40 billion dollars. 过去，非典疫情实际上给全球造成了约400亿美元的损失。 And in the future, a big disease outbreak could actually cost the world in excess of three trillion dollars. 未来，一次重大疾病爆发实际上可能给世界造成超过三万亿美元的损失。 So before, it used to be that you had to take an airplane out of service for one to two months, spend tens of thousands of man hours and several million dollars to try to change something. 所以以前，你必须让一架飞机停止服务一到两个月，花费数万工时和数百万美元来尝试改变某些东西。 But now, we're able to install something essentially overnight and see results right away. Но теперь мы можем установить что-то практически за одну ночь и сразу же увидеть результаты. 但现在，我们基本上可以在一夜之间安装一些东西并立即看到结果。

05:48So it's really now a matter of taking this through to certification, flight testing, and going through all of these regulatory approvals processes. 05:48因此，现在的问题实际上是通过认证、飞行测试并完成所有这些监管审批流程。 But it just really goes to show that sometimes the best solutionsare the simplest solutions. 但这确实表明，有时最好的解决方案就是最简单的解决方案。 And two years ago, even, this project would not have happened, just because the technology then wouldn't have supported it. 甚至在两年前，这个项目也不会发生，因为当时的技术还无法支持它。 But now with advanced computing and how developed our Internet is, it's really the golden era for innovation. 但现在随着先进的计算和互联网的发达，这确实是创新的黄金时代。