Can we make COVID-ridden air look like muddy water?
This winter was especially bad. I got sick just last week, and so did most my friends and teachers. Whenever the leaves start to fall, and the grass starts to frost, I’m reminded with dread. I’d start to hear coughing, or the rustling of a tissue box, and within ten days, we’re all sick. Even with facemasks and excessive hand-washing. Every year.
But when I stumbled across this post by Fin, I was floored. I couldn’t stop thinking ever since about this idea that, just like how we eliminated cholera from our tap, we can stop the next COVID by cleaning the air. We don’t have to accept a few days off each year to the flu.
So why haven’t we sterilized the air like with water? With much digging, it appears one bottleneck is detection. We have sterilization tech (HEPA, Far-UVC), but no affordable way to see pathogens and convince businesses/policymakers to act–no equivalent of disgusting water to impel people to demand change. 1
Yet we already have cheap PM2.5 sensors (lasers+photodiodes) in every modern air purifier for <$10. Adding a UV source and filter for bio fluorescence should cost more, but surely not four orders of magnitude more ($50k).
I suspect we can do better. I have some ideas for an early prototype to make some headway, drafted in the PDF proposal below. I’d really love to work on this problem if I can scrape together the resources (~$300 for experiment). It’s so close to home. It’s a problem that if fully attacked, would give us more healthy time with our loved ones. It’s one where I get to think about all the funnest ideas, like optics/electro and ML and bio. And similar to the little pendulum problem, I’d get to make something real. Except this time to finally help all of us!