CONTAGION
HANDBOOK 30.04.2021-13.06.2021
CONTENTS Playing the Pandemic
6
Can You See It?
10
The Virals Among Us
16
Viral Conspiracies
22
Unveil the Mask
26
My Sneeze Will Go On
32
Fluro-sense: Make Your Mark
36
Coronasketch
40
Virus, Virus, Everywhere
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A Jumbled Spread
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Dear experimenter, Welcome to the bizarre and beguiling world of contagion. We hope you enjoyed our exhibits, attended our lectures, participated in our workshops, and gained fresh perspectives and rich insights into the myriad ways in which contagion informs our lives. This activity handbook is an accompaniment to our digital exhibition CONTAGION, and we hope that through these activities, Do-It-Yourself experiments, and puzzles, you will gain a deeper appreciation for the nature of contagion. Dive in to learn more about how people study invisible microorganisms by experimenting with fluorescence. Understand how conspiracy theories go viral in the digital age by probing through some popular conspiracies and then imagining a new one. Create your own virus art and admire the nuances of these microorganisms! Experience, experiment, and enjoy these activities that we have put together for you. Don’t forget to share pictures of your experiments and creations with us by tagging us on social media, and use the hashtags #ExperimentWithSGB and #TransmissionStartsNow to see what others have created!
Warmly, The Science Gallery Bengaluru Team
PLAYING THE PANDEMIC Sophocles’ famous play Oedipus Rex opens with this plea; a priest implores King Oedipus to intervene and remedy the plague that threatens to annihilate their city. The plague epidemic presents the backdrop against which Oedipus’ story unfolds on stage—the early beginnings of ties between drama and contagion. We find, somewhat contradictorily, surprising connections between theatre and epidemic. Even during Shakespeare’s time, the stage was understood as a space for sin, and plays seen as the cause for epidemics that raged through cities and towns 1 (“Shakespeare in Lockdown: Did He Write King Lear in Plague Quarantine?” 2020). Not only were theatre gatherings a literal risk of contagion, they were imagined to be the very cause of these contagious diseases. Conversely, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, activists spread awareness about the disease through plays and drama 2 (Ristani 2020). The idea of infection and contagion finds roots in theatre, both literally and metaphorically. The audience of a play often shares the actor’s portrayed emotions—the body of one on stage communicating with other bodies. In 1992, Italian researchers found the existence of ‘mirror neurons’ in macaques, which showed that a monkey’s neurons fired when they performed an action, but also when they saw someone else perform the same action (Fabbri-Destro and Rizzolatti 2008). Though scientists and researchers have not reached consensus about the role of mirror neurons in humans, theatre has given new life to the discovery by using it as a lens to study actor-audience communication. Whether it involves mirror neurons or not, we do know that human emotions can be contagious 3 (Wild, Erb, and Bartels 2001). Theatre, then, has a significant role to play, not just because of its historical link with epidemic and disease, but also as a way of potentially understanding contagious behaviours and emotions.
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Thebes is tossed on a murdering sea And cannot lift her head from the death surge. A rust consumes the buds and fruits of the earth; The herds are sick; the children die unborn, And labour is vain. The god of plague and pyre Raids like detestable lightning through the city, And all the house of Kadmos is laid waste, All emptied, and all darkened: Death alone Battens upon the misery of Thebes. (Sophocles 1991, 26–34)
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
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MIRROR, MIRROR YOU WILL NEED A PARTNER SOME SPACE
WHAT TO DO • Grab a partner and face them, making sure there is enough floor space around you • One of you, wordlessly, performs an action—it could be a small movement of any body part, a change in expression, a fluid motion. • The other tries to mirror the action as accurately as possible. The mirroring should happen simultaneously to the other person performing the action itself. • Keep moving and mirroring each other. Don’t wait or pause for one another, but make sure your movements are slow and deliberate. • Both of you, without speaking, indicate the end of the exercise, and come to a halt together. • Record how you feel in the space given below, but don’t discuss it with your partner beforehand!
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NOW EXCHANGE YOUR NOTES, AND DISCUSS THEM.
WERE YOUR FEELINGS AND EXPERIENCES SIMILAR?
HOW DID MIMICKING EACH OTHER MAKE YOU FEEL?
WAS IT EASY TO MIRROR, OR DID YOU FIND IT CHALLENGING?
WERE YOU ALWAYS ABLE TO TELL WHO WAS PERFORMING AND WHO WAS MIRRORING?
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CAN YOU SEE IT? OBSERVING CONTAGION You are part of an audience enraptured by a performance. As it ends, a few people rise to provide a standing ovation. Around you, other people begin to leave their seats as well, and soon, you find yourself following suit. This is an example of a behavioural contagion, a phenomenon in which one person’s or a few people’s behaviour or action becomes a stimulus for many others. There are, however, multiple definitions of behavioural or social contagion, and these have together spawned a broad field of inquiry. Research in social psychology has provided fascinating insights into the spread of behaviours from one person to another. The popularity of skinny jeans, the spread of rule-breaking behaviour. Even the ups and downs of the stock market can be explained in part by social contagion theories. Early research on social contagion was based on observations rather than tests or experiments. People who were writing about crowds and their capacity for contagion, did so as they observed protests and civil unrests 4 (Zaretsky 2016). Since then, psychologists have designed closed studies and worked with data to broaden the understanding of social contagion. However, what remains indispensable is the ability to observe how people imitate and mime others.
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Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash
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TRACK AND OBSERVE Patterns, sounds, colours, people. We function by observing the world around us. We learn and understand by observing others. Scientific hypotheses and discoveries are rooted in people observing various and interesting phenomena. Behavioural contagion in particular, can be studied with just a keen sense of observation. As you observe people around you, don’t forget to share your findings with us using the hashtags #ExperimentWithSGB and
#TransmissionStartsNow
YOU WILL NEED A NOTEPAD A PEN OR PENCIL A FEW UNSUSPECTING PEOPLE (!)
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WHAT TO DO Come up with a list of actions that you want to study for their contagious potential. Some simple ones are yawning, coughing, laughing/smiling, and itching. All four of these actions have been studied and shown to be contagious to some degree. You could try these and/or come up with other behaviours you want to study. Write your actions in the space provided below.
ACTIONS FOR THE EXPERIMENT • Sit with a few people, but don’t tell them about the experiment you are conducting. • Perform your chosen action. Do it when you are speaking or when most people are looking your way so that it is easily seen. • For the next few minutes, observe all the people around you. Did any of them imitate you? Perform the action again if you like. • Record your observations in the templates given below. You can also record other information that you think is relevant to this exercise. • Perform all your other actions similarly. Make sure there is a gap between each action you study. • Analyze your data. What was the most contagious action? What percentage of people imitated you? Was there a chain reaction that originated with your action? Can you propose any hypotheses based on your observations? • At the end of the experiment, don't forget to inform the people of your experiment and its outcome.
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DAY AND DATE
ACTION PERFORMED
NUMBER OF PEOPLE UNDER OBSERVATION
PEOPLE WHO IMITATED THE ACTION AFTER 1ST ROUND
OTHER OBSERVATIONS/INFORMATION
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PEOPLE WHO IMITATED THE ACTION AFTER 2ND ROUND
PEOPLE WHO IMITATED THE ACTION AFTER 3RD ROUND
TOTAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO IMITATED THE ACTION
PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO REPLICATED THE ACTION
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THE VIRALS AMONG US Observing physical spaces to study contagion is a useful and interesting exercise. However, the virtual space of social media has given rise to a much larger network through which a social contagion can spread. The language we use reflects this contagious nature of our online world—the virality in social media has already established the quick, infectious spreading of videos, memes, tweets, and trends. Researchers have begun studying the process behind viral social media trends. The famous video Charlie Bit My Finger – Again! 5 has been watched more than 879 million times (HDCYT 2007). Chances are, you’ve come across it as well. Though a fairly innocuous clip, its popularity evokes questions about the allure of viral videos. What prompts us to share certain things over others? Why do seemingly unremarkable videos capture the online space? Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School and researcher of social influence and viral marketing, theorizes that some videos—like Charlie biting his brother’s finger—invoke visceral emotions within the viewer, changing the physiological state of the body 6 (Lehrer 2011). The arousal of emotions we feel while watching such a video, he further argues, makes us more likely to share this information with others. Other research suggests that emotions online spread at different rates 7 (Shaer 2014). The content of a video, article, or photo is often less important than the emotions it invokes. Awe and anger top the emotions list when it comes to their infectious potential. Sadness, on the other hand, spreads slower because it leads people to take a step back and reduces their willingness to share.
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Screenshot from the viral video 'Charlie bit my finger' Caption placeholder
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ACTIVITY To investigate viral social media trends, it is critical to understand the contagion potential that underlies the process of virality. Think of a few viral trends you have come across. Here is a long list 8 to get you started and refresh your memory (Frias 2019). Once you have come up with a few viral trends, think about the following questions, and write down some of your thoughts in the space given below:
WHAT WAS THE AIM OF THIS TREND?
WHICH PLATFORM DID THE TREND ORIGINATE ON, AND HOW MIGHT THAT HAVE CHANGED THE WAY IT WAS RECEIVED BY PEOPLE?
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WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THESE VIRAL TRENDS?
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THESE TRENDS? WHAT EMOTIONS DO THEY INDUCE IN YOU?
WHY DO YOU THINK THESE TRENDS/VIDEOS/THEORIES MIGHT HAVE BEEN SHARED OVER AND OVER?
PUT DOWN ANY OTHER THOUGHTS YOU HAVE THAT MIGHT HELP DECIPHER THE REASON AND WAY IT SPREAD 19
Once you have this information, think about what you would create if your goal was to make something go viral. Some questions you could think about:
What kind of content would you create: an article, a photo, a video, a challenge, or something else entirely? What emotions would you target?
Do you think trying to arouse multiple emotions will be more effective than targeting a single one?
When would you consider something to have gone viral?
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Did you have to make decisions you didn’t like in order to increase your content’s chance of going viral?
Share your ideas by writing, photographing, illustrating, or through any other medium! Use the hashtags #ExperimentWithSGB and #TransmissionStartsNow and let people know what might be the next viral trend.
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VIRAL CONSPIRACIES Jumping on the bandwagon of viral trends can create a shared reality even on virtual platforms. The danger, however, is that people resort to great lengths to go viral. When content creators know that anger and rage spread quickly— or that lies spread faster than the truth9—our apps become flooded with fake news that is meant to create shock and outrage (Vosoughi, Roy, and Aral 2018). It would seem that it doesn’t matter if the content we see is true, accurate, or appropriate as long as it spreads rapidly. Inaccurate data, unverified information, doctored images; add a space like the internet through which to disseminate them, and we are left with bizarre and alluring conspiracy theories. A recording named bad-day.mpg was perhaps the first video to go viral—the concept didn’t even exist yet—on the internet. The video goes something like this: Trying to work in the office, but frustrated with slow and bungling technology, a man takes his keyboard and smashes it into the computer. This 25-second video became a hotbed for conspiracy theories when web developer Benoit Rigaut noticed some discrepancies and inaccuracies in it. He pointed them out using screenshots and highlighted, impactful red circles, creating the conspiracy theory aesthetic still popular today 10 (Veix 2018). While this first ever internet conspiracy theory was fairly harmless, today’s viral conspiracies can have significant and dire social and political implications. Take COVID-19: a pathogenic virus we cannot see; the novel and potentially lethal illness; a world suddenly forced to socially distance and physically isolate. Conspiracy theories feed off our stress and emotional strain as we become more susceptible to believing and sharing them. Conspiracies around COVID-19 have been proliferating as widely as the virus itself—spreading without any need of a physical transmission medium.
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“Just like a conspiracy theory you never get to the end of the Internet. Both are constantly unfolding with new information or a new arrangement of old facts. It is no surprise then, that with the ever-increasing saturation of our lives with digital networks that we are also awash in grotesque amalgamations of half-facts about vaccines, terrorist attacks, the birth and death of presidents, and the health of the planet 11(Banks 2016).” - Kathleen Stewart Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
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COVID-SPIRACY “The whiff of conspiracy that inevitably seems to trail pandemics is nothing new. When the 1918 flu pandemic hit the Americas, it was blamed on German submarines spreading the virus.12 Like conspiracy theories, pandemics are about an invisible and powerful enemy hiding among us. Like pandemics, conspiracy theories are contagious 13 (Guilhot 2020).” You’ve probably come across at least a few of COVID-19 conspiracies on social media. Given on the right is a non-exhaustive list of popular conspiracy theories around the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Conspiracy Handbook 14 gives a succinct summary of how conspiratorial thought works. Does reading this handbook change any of your answers ? Now invent your own conspiracy theory. Using this Spotting COVID-19 Conspiracies Handbook 15 as a template, imagine a conspiracy theory rooted in your local context and present. Present it to people around you and take detailed notes of their reactions.
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Rate how likely or unlikely they are to be true. What have you heard about these theories? Why would they have become popular and what emotions do they target? (If online, you can use the pen tool.) LIST OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES COVID-19 was a bioweapon released by China.16 Unlikely
Likely
Bill Gates did not just predict a pandemic, he created one. A video in which Bill Gates talks about an infectious disease as the next big threat for the world, was used to fan theories that he had created the novel coronavirus.17 Unlikely
Likely
COVID-19 death rates were inflated, and the real count was significantly lower.18 Unlikely
Likely
The coronavirus was no more dangerous than a common cold.19 Unlikely
Likely
5G mobile phone signals led to the transmission of this virus.20
Unlikely
Likely
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UNVEIL YOUR MASK Amongst the many conspiracy theories around COVID-19, one that actively hampered precautionary measures was the myth that masks don’t work 21 (Khazan 2020). From the idea that masks can make us sicker to the belief that wearing a face covering is a sign of weakness, the anti-mask debate took hold of the world as the pandemic raged on. Right now, we know with absolute certainty that masks, when worn properly, offer at least some protection against COVID-19. Scientists from Duke University found a way to test the efficacy of different masks by using an optical laser that illuminated droplets expelled from the mouth while speaking (Duke Health News 2020). They tested 14 materials that could be used for face coverings, and found that the N95 mask was most effective. You can watch their experiment here.22 Read further experiments on “How to Build a Better Homemade Face Mask” here.23
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Photo of a white concrete sculpture with face mask on Pexels
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ACTIVITY You can test how effective your mask is on your own!
YOU WILL NEED 2 PETRI DISHES, OR 2 DISPOSABLE PLASTIC CONTAINERS WITH LIDS AGAR-AGAR (USUALLY AVAILABLE IN THE BAKING SECTION OF A GROCERY STORE) NUTRIENT MEDIUM THE MASK YOU WANT TO TEST A PAIR OF GLOVES RUBBING ALCOHOL TONGS A 10% BLEACH SOLUTION ANTIBACTERIAL SOAP 2 SOFT, NON-ABRASIVE CLOTHS WARM WATER A MARKER
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WHAT TO DO A. Preparing the petri dish • Disinfect a surface with rubbing alcohol and a cloth. Make sure it is untouched by anyone or anything after sterilizing. • Prepare a solution of 4.5 cups of warm water with half a cup bleach. You can tweak the quantity of the solution with a 9:1 ratio of water to bleach. • Clean a pair of tongs with rubbing alcohol and a cloth. Leave it on the sterilized surface, to be used later. • Take your petri dishes or containers and wash each of them with warm water and soap, making sure no residue is left on them. • Using the tongs, carefully put a petri dish (including the lid) into the bleach and warm water solution for about 2 minutes. • Remove the petri dish with the tongs and allow some of the liquid to drip out. Then dip it into a bowl of rubbing alcohol and take it out immediately. • Set it aside on the sterilized surface, and repeat the process with the other petri dish. • Sterilizing the petri dishes is critical since it ensures that only microorganisms (mainly bacteria) from the experiment will grow on it!
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B. Preparing the agar nutrient medium • Weigh out 6.9 grams of agar powder. • Mix the powder with 500 ml water in a saucepan. • Heat the saucepan on the stove, ensuring that the agar dissolves completely. • Keep your petri dishes open with the lids nearby. Remember to wear gloves while handling the sterilized containers! • Now add the agar solution to one petri dish. Fill it only halfway, and immediately shut the lid. Repeat with the other. • Wait for the agar to set completely. It might take a few hours for the solution to solidify. Wearing gloves, gently move the petri dish to see if the liquid has set. • Once the petri dish has cooled, you’re ready to move onto the actual experiment! C. Time to test • Again wearing gloves, gently open a petri dish. Keep it about 1.5 feet away from your face, and cough twice onto the set agar medium. If you want to test a sneeze instead, you can try to induce it by smelling pepper. • Shut the lid of this petri dish, and using a marker label it ‘sample A: no mask.’ • Wear your mask, and cough twice (or sneeze once, depending on your chosen method) onto the second petri dish. Close the lid and label it ‘sample B: with mask.’ • Leave the petri dishes undisturbed for about 10 days. Try to keep them in a warm place, as that will help speed up the growth of bacteria.
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D. Observation • Observe the 2 petri dishes. What are the differences between the masked and not masked cough or sneeze? How many bacterial colonies can you see? • You can repeat this experiment with different types of mask, experiment with seeing how much bacteria grow if you talk, sneeze or cough.
Condition (no mask/mask)
if mask, specify the material/kind of mask
Look
Smell
No. of bacterial colonies
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MY SNEEZE WILL GO ON While masks help reduce the potentially virus-carrying droplets that exit our mouths when we speak, sneeze, or cough, knowing just how far these droplets can travel without a mask is crucial for creating social distancing guidelines. How far is far enough? Lydia Bourouiba and her team at MIT have used high-speed cameras to record human sneezes. While studying the fluid dynamics of sneezes and coughs, they showed that fluid from a sneeze splatters like paint flung through the air 24 (Chu 2016). The fluid exits like a sheet and quickly balloons up, finally separating into tiny drops. Even more significant, they found that a sneeze or cough produces clouds of gas through which these droplets can travel up to 8 metres (for a sneeze) and 6 metres (for a cough). While this research started in 2014, its relevance has only grown with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A 1946 colour lithograph of a handkerchief being blown away by a sneeze. Wellcome Collection
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ACTIVITY While we don’t have high-speed cameras to capture the cloud of aerosols expelled with our sneezes and coughs, there are some other ways that, fortunately, don’t involve forcing sneezes.
YOU WILL NEED A BALLOON MANY SMALL CIRCLES (ABOUT 0.5 CM IN DIAMETER) MADE OUT OF PAPER. YOU CAN USE A HOLE PUNCHER FOR THIS. MAKE SURE TO HAVE AT LEAST 30 OF THESE. A FUNNEL, OR A PIECE OF PAPER THAT CAN BE ROLLED INTO THAT SHAPE.
WHAT TO DO • Collect your paper circles in a container. These are the ‘germs’ whose spread we want to see. • If you don’t have a funnel, take an A4 size paper and roll it so that it resembles the shape of a funnel. • Place the narrow end of the funnel into your balloon, and slowly put your germ paper circles into the funnel. Shake the funnel to ensure all the germs are inside the balloon. 34 / CONTAGION 2021
• Mark the spot on which you are standing so that you can measure the germ-spread later. • Now blow up the balloon. You can use an air-pump if you want. Don’t tie the balloon after it is fully blown up, just hold it near the end. • Turn the balloon so that the open-end faces the ground. This lets the ‘germs’ all collect towards the opening. • Slowly tilt the balloon horizontally, but make sure the circles stay towards the opening. • Now slowly release your hold from the balloon, and watch as the ‘germs’ go flying! • After the balloon is fully deflated, measure the spread of your germs.
Experiment no.
Maximum distance of spread
Average
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FLURO-SENSE: MAKE YOUR MARK Aerosol transmission from direct physical contact with an infected person is the primary way COVID-19 spreads. However, contact with contaminated surfaces and objects can also transmit the disease. For frontline workers constantly in contact with infected patients, the potential for contagion is quite high. To test the protection accorded by PPE kits, researchers used fluorescent water—which is only visible in UV light—as the contagious, infectious agent. Healthcare workers donned their PPE kits and tended for a patient covered in this fluorescent solution. After taking off their protection equipment and observing themselves in UV light, the researchers and healthcare workers were able to identify which part of their skin came into contact with the fluorescence (Hughes, Hughes, and Ahmed 2020). 25
This simple method effectively made visible the transmission of a virus we cannot see. In Japan, a similar experiment was done in a restaurant. One person’s hands were covered in fluorescent water to simulate being infected. The rest of the diners were unaware of this and went about their usual way in the restaurant. Later under blacklight, the fluorescence, or ‘germs,’ could be seen on faces, food, and even the utensils (Johnson 2020). 26
But why can we see this fluorescence in the first place? Fluorescence takes place when a substance absorbs light energy causing its photons to get excited. Then, the energy is emitted out. When matter absorbs UV light, we are unable to see it since UV is outside our spectrum of visible light. However, we are able to see the energy they release!
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Photo by Simon Davis/DFID. UV screening for potentially virus-carrying bodily fluids.
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EXPERIMENT Curious to know how many surfaces you touch unknowingly? You can track your touches using this experiment!
YOU WILL NEED • A FLASHLIGHT • 2 RUBBER BANDS • BLUE AND PURPLE TRANSLUCENT CELLOPHANE PAPER. ALTERNATIVELY, A UV SIMULATOR APP ON YOUR PHONE. • A MUG FILLED WITH WARM WATER • A YELLOW HIGHLIGHTER
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WHAT TO DO A. To make the UV light • If you want to make your own UV light, grab the coloured cellophane paper and your flashlight. • Cut the cellophane paper to a size that can wrap around the flashlight. You should have 2 blue sheets and 1 purple. • Tightly stretch the blue cellophane papers around the flashlight and secure them with a rubber band. • Lastly, put the purple cellophane sheet on the flashlight and use another rubber band to tie it into place. • Alternatively, you can install a UV light simulator app on your phone. These are available on both Android and iOS.
B. Preparing the fluorescent water • Wear gloves for this next part. Fill a mug with warm water and keep it aside. • Grab your highlighter and uncap it. Be prepared to sacrifice this highlighter since you won’t be able to use it after the experiment! Figure out how to access the ink tube. You should be able to open the highlighter to do so. Otherwise, grab some scissors and pull the felt tip out. • Dip the ink tube into the water, you will notice the colour bleeding into the water. You might have to cut the tube so that all the ink is released. • Remove your gloves and dip your hands into the highlighter solution. Now go about your day as usual for a couple of hours. Every hour or so, dip your hands into the solution again. • Ideally at night, switch off all the lights and switch on your UV light. Shine it in different areas of your house (including yourself!) and see just how many things you touch in a day.
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CORONASKETCH For anyone without access to a laboratory, the UV fluorescence experiment brings to light the undetectable nature of the virus. The mode of transmission becomes accessible to us. The challenge of providing accurate and proven scientific knowledge to the public lies in presenting it clearly yet interestingly. Making complex microbial structures understandable to people is a challenge. Scholars like David Goodsell have integrated their scientific practice with art (Cohen 2019). A structural biologist, he studies microorganisms and spends a considerable amount of time painting and illustrating their structures. Goodsell makes pain-staking observations to ensure his drawings are as accurate as possible, though he takes artistic licenses with the colours and finer details. His drawings turn these dangerous pathogens into beautifully crafted works of art that preserve the anatomy of the microbes. The illustrations make these structures come alive for its audience, allowing for creative engagement with the subject.
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Illustration by David S. Goodsell and the RCSB PDB. Shared under the CC-BY-4.0 license
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PAINT YOUR OWN VIRUS! YOU WILL NEED • COLOUR PENCILS/PAINTS/SKETCH PENS/ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO USE FOR YOUR ART • A PRINT OF THE IMAGE ON THE RIGHT.
WHAT TO DO Pick your colours and paint! There are no rules you have to follow. Once you finish your masterpiece, share it with us using the hashtags #ExperimentWithSGB and #TransmissionStartsNow.
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CORONAVIRUS
David S. Goodsell and the RCSB PDB. Shared under the CC-BY-4.0 license
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VIRUS, VIRUS, EVERYWHERE Taking deadly viruses and turning them into art represents human capacity for resilience and beauty. If you would like to add to your virus-art collection, look no further! Under a microscope, viruses are often symmetrical and pleasing to the eye. So much so that researchers at the University of Glasgow have created a collection of virus snowflakes! 28
You can print the page here and cut out your very virus snowflakes to admire. Not satisfied? Looking for a more realistic model? Well, you can build a 3-D model of the Zika virus as well! You will find the printable model here.
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Photo by Raphael Renter on Unsplash
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A JUMBLED SPREAD After having observed, thought, experimented, and wondered, your head might be reeling! We have one final activity for you: the contagion jumble. As you try to figure out the scrambled words below, think about how a wor(l)d that looks messy and unintelligible can suddenly unravel to make sense. Often, a contagion seems incomprehensible: how do we make sense of our world now, of the monumental spread of COVID-19, of the bizarre responses to it? The good news is that people around the world are studying, thinking, creating, and documenting.
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The jumbled words here, related in some way or another to contagion, can be unscrambled for answers.
SAIAMM
..............................................
ECTSPELENI
..................................................
CLCNSATOSTE
..................................................
TAIIISZOANNT
..................................................
ESSRPO
...........................................
IORAAPAN
..................................................
BUECMLAMOCIN
..................................................
UOSCRE
..................................
SRTECUL
.................................
NOIRGI
.............................
RIEARCR PRLEIP
................................... ................................
NWEKTRO
.....................................
ORFNMOC
..............................................
MIICM
...........................
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REFERENCES 1 “Shakespeare in Lockdown: Did He Write King Lear in Plague Quarantine?” 2020. The Guardian. March 22. http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/mar/22/shakespeare-in-lockdown-did-he-write-kinglear-in-plague-quarantine. 2 Ristani, Maria. 2020. “Theatre and Epidemics: An Age-Old Link.” Critical Stages, no. 21. June. http://www.critical-stages.org/21/theatre-and-epidemics-an-age-old-link/. 3 Wild, Barbara, Michael Erb, and Mathias Bartels. 2001. “Are Emotions Contagious? Evoked Emotions While Viewing Emotionally Expressive Faces: Quality, Quantity, Time Course and Gender Differences.” June 1. Psychiatry Research 102 (2): 109–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(01)00225-6. 4 Zaretsky, Robert. 2016. “The Myth of Mobocracy.” The Atlantic. July 27. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/07/trump-le-bon-mob/493118/. 5 HDCYT. 2007. Charlie Bit My Finger - Again ! YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM. Lehrer, Jonah. 2011. “Why Do Viral Videos Go Viral?” Wired. July 25. 6 https://www.wired.com/2011/07/why-do-viral-videos-go-viral/. 7 Shaer, Matthew. 2014. “What Emotion Goes Viral the Fastest?” Smithsonian Magazine. April. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-emotion-goes-viral-fastest-180950182/. Frias, Lauren. 2019. “The 60 Biggest Viral Moments from the 2010s Decade.” 8 INSIDER. December 17. https://www.insider.com/biggest-viral-moments-videos-memes-from-the-2010s#2018-selfiekid-45. 9 Vosoughi, Soroush, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral. 2018. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” March 9. Science 359 (6380): 1146–51. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559. Veix, Joe. 2018. “The Strange History of One of the Internet’s First Viral Videos.” Wired. 10 January 12. https://www.wired.com/story/history-of-the-first-viral-video/. 11 Banks, David. 2016. “The Internet as Conspiracy Theory.” The Society Pages, Cyborgology. June 3. https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/06/03/the-internet-as-conspiracy-theory/. 12 Shafer, Ronald G. 2020. “Spain Hated Being Linked to the Deadly 1918 Flu Pandemic. Trump’s ‘Chinese Virus’ Label Echoes That.” Washington Post, March 23, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/23/spanish-flu-chinese-virus-trump/.
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13 Guilhot, Nicolas. 2020. “Why Pandemics Are the Perfect Environment for Conspiracy Theories to Flourish.” The Conversation. April 6. http://theconversation.com/why-pandemics-are-the-perfect-environment-for-conspiracy-theoriesto-flourish-135475. 14 Lewandowsky, S., & Cook, J. 2020. The Conspiracy Theory Handbook. http://sks.to/conspiracy. 15 Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Ecker, U., van der Linden, S. 2020. How to Spot COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories. http://sks.to/conspir. Evans, Nicholas G. 2020. “Where the Coronavirus Bioweapon Conspiracy Theories Really 16 Come From.” Slate Magazine. February 27. https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/coronavirus-bioweapon-conspiracy-theories.html. 17 Reuters. 2020. “Fact Check: Bill Gates Is Not Responsible for COVID-19.” Reuters, September 11. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-gates-idUSKBN2613CK. 18 Aschwanden, Christie. 2020. “Debunking the False Claim That COVID Death Counts Are Inflated.” Scientific American. October 20. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/debunking-the-false-claim-that-covid-death-countsare-inflated1/. 19 John Hopkins School of Public Health. 2020. “No, COVID-19 Is Not the Flu.” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. October 20. https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/no-covid-19-is-not-the-flu.html. 20 Temperton, James. 2020. “The Rise and Spread of a 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory.” Wired, April 9, 2020. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory. 21 Khazan, Olga. 2020. “How a Bizarre Claim About Masks Has Lived on for Months.” The Atlantic. October 9. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/can-masks-make-you-sicker/616641/. Duke Health. 2020. Inexpensive Way to Test Face Mask Effectiveness in Reducing 22 COVID-19 Transmission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeEBn4ttZZY. 23 McGreevy, Nora. 2021. “How to Build a Better Homemade Face Mask, According to Science.” Smithsonian Magazine. March 17, 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/using-store-bought-microscopesand-eye-detail-heres-what-smithsonian-scientists-have-learned-about-mask-effectiveness-180977216/.
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24 Chu, Jennifer. 2016. “Sneezing Produces Complex Fluid Cascade, Not a Simple Spray.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. February 10. https://news.mit.edu/2016/sneezing-fluid-cascade-not-simple-spray-0210. Hughes, Patrick G., Kate E. Hughes, and Rami A. Ahmed. 2020. “Does My 25 Personal Protective Equipment Really Work? A Simulation-Based Approach.” 24 April. Medical Education 54 (8): 759–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14188. 26 Johnson, Lauren M. 2020. “Black Light Experiment Shows How Quickly a Virus Like COVID-19 Can Spread at a Restaurant.” CNN. May 14. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/health/japan-black-light-experiment-coronavirus-trndwellness/index.html. 27 Cohen, Jon. 2019. “Meet the Scientist Painter Who Turns Deadly Viruses into Beautiful Works of Art.” Science | AAAS. April 11. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/meet-scientist-painter-who-turns-deadly-viruses-beautiful-works-art. 28 Hutchinson, Ed. “Virus Snowflakes”. MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_765622_smxx.pdf. 29 Protein Data, Bank. “Build A Paper Model of Zika Virus.” https://cdn.rcsb.org/pdb101/learn/resources/zika/zika-paper-model.pdf. All icons courtesy of the Noun Project.
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