Typhoid Mary
Last night's episode of Mythbusters dealt with myths related to sneezing and spread of the common cold. One of their tests involved rigging Adam up with a "mechanical cold" - a drip rig along his nose that leaked a clear liquid that is fluorescent under black light at the same rate as the human nose produces mucus when sick. They then had a "dinner party" to see how far Adam's "snot" spread to other people and objects - they did this two ways: first when he wasn't trying to protect his "guests" from his "cold" (and didn't even tell them he was "sick") and once when he let them know he had a "cold" and made efforts to reduce the possibility of transmission.
Then they put everyone under the black light.
It was a very good illustration of why the FamDamily shares illnesses so easily. We're not as sloppy as Adam was in his first "party" but we're also not nearly as fastidious as he was in the second instance.
I got to then end of the episode and told Shar that it made me very curious what our group's normal interaction patterns would show using a similar test. I'm also now very grateful for my immune system. :)
Then they put everyone under the black light.
It was a very good illustration of why the FamDamily shares illnesses so easily. We're not as sloppy as Adam was in his first "party" but we're also not nearly as fastidious as he was in the second instance.
I got to then end of the episode and told Shar that it made me very curious what our group's normal interaction patterns would show using a similar test. I'm also now very grateful for my immune system. :)