This mask glows if it has been in contact with Covid-19. Just pass it under UV light.
The idea of wearing a mask when you are sick, or not for that matter, it is because you are protecting yourself and the others around you. Indeed, viruses like Covid-19 mainly infect people through droplets that are expelled into the air when you sneeze, cough or even talk.
Wearing a mask helps prevent these droplets from escaping from your mouth and nose and prevents them from entering your mouth and nose if they come from someone else. Here is a very interesting innovation.
This mask glows if it has been in contact with Covid-19
That being said, how can one tell if the mask is really effective? Have you actually been in contact with someone who has been infected with Covid-19?
It’s hard to say, but researchers at Kyoto University have developed a filter made from ostrich antibodies which, when placed under ultraviolet light, glows on condition that it has been in contact with Covid-19.
To make this very unique mask, scientists first injected an ostrich with the spike protein of the virus – and don’t worry, ostriches are said to be very resistant to this disease – before they extract the antibodies from the yolk of the animal’s eggs. They then embedded these antibodies into the filters of the mask using polylactic acid.
Just pass it under UV light
What is the point of such a mask? According to lead researcher Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, “While virus infection can be detected by putting a filter over one’s mouth with ostrich antibodies in a ‘disposable mask’ that is used every day around the world, infected people will not -symptomatic such as superinfectors can be voluntarily treated at an early stage.”
Unclear if the team plans to manufacture these masks in large quantities to market them, but Yasuhiro Tsukamoto explains that he hopes this technique can be applied to other viruses. In other words, once this Covid-19 pandemic is behind us, it could still be useful in our daily lives.