How Our Exhalations Help Spread Pathogens Such as SARS-CoV-2

Lydia Bourouiba, an expert in fluid dynamics and disease transmission at MIT, explains how the physics of sneezes and coughs leads to the spread of respiratory pathogens such as COVID-19.

Written byAmanda Heidt

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Lydia Bourouiba first began thinking about how pathogens travel during the global SARS outbreak that began in November 2002. SARS, a close viral cousin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the current COVID-19 pandemic, leapt from person to person via contaminated surfaces, but even then there was discussion among epidemiologists that airborne transmission may be an understudied mechanism contributing to the spread of the virus. As a physical mathematician with an interest in fluid dynamics and public health, Bourouiba knew that pathogens exist in fluids—in the body, in water, or in air—and she also knew a bit about how fluids move through the world. Despite what she calls the “many gaps in our understanding” of how diseases pass from person to person, these two points made her curious enough to pivot from a career in mathematics and physics to one in epidemiology.

Now, as director of the ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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