Norovirius is certainly a pesky bugger. But discretion is the better part of valor, and patients familiar with norovirus’ famous side effects can, like war veterans, remain silent about the horrors they have suffered through. Medical researchers have insatiable curiosity, however, and so appropriate experimental tools have to be built to study the projectile vomiting common to norovirus propagation.
Researchers at Britain’s Health and Safety Laboratory decided to study how vomit takes flight and spreads by building an anatomically correct robot, named Vomiting Larry, that does one thing and does it well. Through their research they’ve discovered that the norovirus can travel up to ten feet, meaning you’ll have to bleach the whole bathroom after a serious attack.
The technology behind the robot is not entirely new, having long been a central feature in a popular animatronic installation at New York City’s Coney Island:
More, with great video of the robot in action, from the BBC…
(hat tip: PopSci)