Plasma Hand Sanitizer

One might not expect a researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany) to come up a new way to treat  athletes’ foot without removing socks, or for sterilizing hospital workers’ hands, but this truth is stranger than fiction.  Gregor Morfill, at Max Planck, finds that ionized air (plasma) is capable of these and other sterilization tasks.  A small box in which the plasma is generated receives a hand and kills its germs, even under the nails, in four seconds.  Its cool to the touch (room temperature) and just plain cool.      MORE

Image Credit:  Phil Wilson and the NY Times