Ever wondered why the air smells so refreshing on a rainy day? Using high-speed cameras, researchers at MIT observed that when a raindrop hits a porous surface, it traps tiny air bubbles, which then shoot upward and burst into a mist of aerosols. “Until now, people didn’t know that aerosols could be generated from raindrops on soil. This finding should be a good reference for future work, illuminating microbes and chemicals existing inside soil and other natural materials, and how they can be delivered in the environment, and possibly to humans,” said Youngsoo Joung, postdoctoral researcher and first author of the study. “To prevent transmission of microorganisms from nature to humans, we need to know the exact mechanism. In this work, we provide one possible way of transmission,” he added. Reference: Joung YS, Buie CR. Aerosol generation by raindrop impact on soil. Nat Commun. 2015 Jan 14;6:6083. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7083. Sources: nature/ncomms/2015/150114/ncomms7083/full/ncomms7083.html newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/rainfall-can-release-aerosols-0114 news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2014/01/watch-slow-mo-video-shows-how-rain-gets-its-smell https://youtube/watch?v=Waqmq_GTyjA
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:08:22 +0000
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