PM Gordon Brown Sneezing
(IN PHOTO) Britain's opposition Conservative Party leader, David Cameron sneezes during a service to rededicate the Basra memorial wall at the National Arboretum in Alrewas, central England, March 11, 2010. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was among the guests as a memorial wall to British soldiers killed in Iraq was rededicated in Staffordshire on Thursday. The Basra Memorial Wall was originally built in the southern Iraqi city four years ago as a monument to the 178 armed forces personnel and one Ministry of Defence civilian who died during British operations in the country between 2003 and 2009. Reuters

A 17-year-old Canadian won on Friday the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair competition for inventing a system to prevent germs from spreading inside planes. For his invention, Raymond Wang was awarded a prize of $75,000.

The fair attracted 1,700 young scientists from different nations. Besides Wang, 11 other Canadian students won prizes at the fair. Wang received the Gordon E. Moore Award, named after Intel’s co-founder, reports The Star.

Wang was challenged to find a solution to the spread of germs in jet cabins after news of Ebola epidemic hit the headlines in December, reports Washington Post. Although the Ebola virus is not spread airborne, other contagious diseases, such as the swine flu and SARS, are spread through air.

He points out that because of the two large, turbulent swirls of air inside a plane cabin, diseases are spread across the rows and longitudinally when someone sneezes, for instance. Using a high-resolution simulations of airflow inside a Boeing 737, Wang designed a fin-shaped device that fits into the jet’s existing air inlets.

The fins provide each passenger a personalised ventilation zone by vanquishing sneezes and pushing it out of the cabin before it spreads by redirecting the air flow, in essence making virtual walls of air for every person aboard the aircraft.

Wang said the fins boost by 190 percent available fresh air inside the cabin and cuts concentration of airborne germs 55 times. His estimate is that the fins would cost $1,000 per jet, which could be installed overnight.

Besides the fins, Wang had invented an outdoor trash bin that cleans itself and a gadget that generates electricity from energy of rain that fall on roofs. It is his first win in the Intel Science Fair.

Other winners in the Intel competition, the largest in the world for high school students, are 16-year-old Canadian Nicole Ticea who devised a cheap, disposable HIV testing device that does not use electricity and 18-year-old Karan Jerath of Texas who refined a gadget that recovers an undersea oil well from a blowout.

Wang had his invention, called air flow inlet director, patented. He said he would use the prize money for more research projects.

To contact the writer, email: vittoriohernanez@yahoo.com

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