Cold Cough Photo Using Schlieren Photography

Posted on November 21, 2008

Here is a frightening photograph of someone with a cold coughing and a thick cloud of cold virus being released and widely dispersed. A technique called Schlieren photography was used by Pennsylvania State Professor Gary Settles to show how a cough can spread the cold virus through the air.

The image helps virologists study disease transmission using gas dynamics. The picture makes it clear that a cough is a powerful mechanism viruses can take advantage of to spread from human to human. Now you know why the common cold spreads so quickly. If you are anywhere near a coughing sick human it is obvious you are going to be exposed to cold or influenza particles.

It looks like a volcano has erupted inside the man's body. Air is being expelled from the man's body at 18 mph. The New York Times explains how the photographic technology works by using lenses, a curved mirror, a razor blade and other items. The photograph was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Photo: Gary Settles/Pennsylvania State University





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