Coronavirus: what can nuclear physics tell us about stopping the pandemic?
- Japanese nuclear physicists say that limiting the spread of the virus could be similar to controlling a thermonuclear reaction
- Models of chain reactions suggest ways authorities can let most people get on with their life without a vaccine
The researchers led by Nagato Yagani from the National Institute for Fusion Science, said that if a person who tested positive was isolated from the rest of the population within eight days of infection, the coronavirus would not be able to spread in a city even as densely packed as Tokyo.
In a non-peer-reviewed paper posted in medRxiv.org on Sunday, the researchers said that limiting the spread of the virus could be similar to controlling a thermonuclear reaction.
Some mathematical equations describing the spread of the virus among people were almost the same as those used in fusion reactor design, according to Yanagi and colleagues.
They said newly infected people were similar to “ash atoms” created by in a nuclear reaction and if they were not removed in time they could destabilise the reactor or even cause an explosion.