Friday, January 4, 2013

"Larry, the projectile vomiting robot helping a British team learn to stop the spread of norovirus"

Who knew?
Or wanted to.
From the Daily Mail:

  • Larry the 'humanoid vomiting system' is helping a British team find out how far infections can reach
  • He is primed with fluorescent 'vomitus substitute' so researchers can distinguish even small splashes
  • A million people in Britain are thought to have suffered from norovirus this year, and many more across the world
  • British scientists have designed a projectile vomiting robot to help them to study how norovirus, the nauseating sickness sweeping the country, is being transmitted.
    Larry the 'humanoid vomiting system' has been puking continuously for weeks at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire so scientists can see how far his splashes of sick fly.

    Developed by researcher Catherine Mackison, his projections are easy to spot because they are primed with a fluorescent 'vomitus substitute' to help distinguish even small splashes. 
    Scroll down for video of Larry in full flow!

    Larry the vomiting robot: Scientists at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire are using their 'humanoid vomiting system' to study how far norovirus infected sick can be projected
    Larry the vomiting robot: Scientists at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire are using 
    their 'humanoid vomiting system' to study how far norovirus infected sick can be projected
    But in the real world, with norovirus so infectious one expert has described it as 'the Ferrari of the virus world', contamination is much more difficult track....MORE
    I'm not sure that "Scroll down for video..." has quite the sales appeal that the Mail believes it does.