• Op-ed: Canada’s leadership in solar air heating—Innovation and flagship projects

    Solar air heating is among the most cost-effective applications of solar thermal energy. These systems are used for space heating and preheating fresh air for ventilation, typically using glazed or unglazed perforated solar collectors. The collectors draw in outside air, heat it using solar energy, and then distribute it through ductwork to meet building heating and fresh air needs. In 2024, Canada led again the world for the at least seventh year in a row in solar air heating adoption. The four key suppliers – Trigo Energies, Conserval Engineering, Matrix Energy, and Aéronergie – reported a combined 26,203 m2of collector area sold last year. Several of these providers are optimistic about the growing demand. These findings come from the newly released Canadian Solar Thermal Market Survey 2024, commissioned by Natural Resources Canada.
    Canada is the global leader in solar air heating. The market is driven by a strong network of experienced system suppliers, optimized technologies, and a few small favorable funding programs – especially in the province of Quebec. Architects and developers are increasingly turning to these cost-effective, façade-integrated systems as a practical solution for reducing onsite natural gas consumption.
    Despite its cold climate, Canada benefits from strong solar potential with solar irradiance in many areas rivaling or even exceeding that of parts of Europe. This makes solar air heating not only viable, but especially valuable in buildings with high fresh air requirements including schools, hospitals, and offices. The projects highlighted in this article showcase the versatility and relevance of solar air heating across a range of building types, from new constructions to retrofits.
    Figure 1: Preheating air for industrial buildings: 2,750 m2of Calento SL solar air collectors cover all south-west and south-east facing facades of the FAB3R factory in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. The hourly unitary flow rate is set at 41 m3/m2 or 2.23 cfm/ft2 of collector area, at the lower range because only a limited number of intake fans was close enough to the solar façade to avoid long ventilation ductwork. Photo: Trigo Energies
    Quebec’s solar air heating boom: the Trigo Energies story
    Trigo Energies makes almost 90 per cent of its sales in Quebec. “We profit from great subsidies, as solar air systems are supported by several organizations in our province – the electricity utility Hydro Quebec, the gas utility Energir and the Ministry of Natural Resources,” explained Christian Vachon, Vice President Technologies and R&D at Trigo Energies.
    Trigo Energies currently has nine employees directly involved in planning, engineering and installing solar air heating systems and teams up with several partner contractors to install mostly retrofit projects. “A high degree of engineering is required to fit a solar heating system into an existing factory,” emphasized Vachon. “Knowledge about HVAC engineering is as important as experience with solar thermal and architecture.”
    One recent Trigo installation is at the FAB3R factory in Trois-Rivières. FAB3R specializes in manufacturing, repairing, and refurbishing large industrial equipment. Its air heating and ventilation system needed urgent renovation because of leakages and discomfort for the workers. “Due to many positive references he had from industries in the area, the owner of FAB3R contacted us,” explained Vachon. “The existence of subsidies helped the client to go for a retrofitting project including solar façade at once instead of fixing the problems one bit at a time.” Approximately 50 per cent of the investment costs for both the solar air heating and the renovation of the indoor ventilation system were covered by grants and subsidies. FAB3R profited from an Energir grant targeted at solar preheating, plus an investment subsidy from the Government of Quebec’s EcoPerformance Programme.
     
    Blue or black, but always efficient: the advanced absorber coating
    In October 2024, the majority of the new 2,750 m²solar façade at FAB3R began operation. According to Vachon, the system is expected to cover approximately 13 per cent of the factory’s annual heating demand, which is otherwise met by natural gas. Trigo Energies equipped the façade with its high-performance Calento SL collectors, featuring a notable innovation: a selective, low-emissivity coating that withstands outdoor conditions. Introduced by Trigo in 2019 and manufactured by Almeco Group from Italy, this advanced coating is engineered to maximize solar absorption while minimizing heat loss via infrared emission, enhancing the overall efficiency of the system.
    The high efficiency coating is now standard in Trigo’s air heating systems. According to the manufacturer, the improved collector design shows a 25 to 35 per cent increase in yield over the former generation of solar air collectors with black paint. Testing conducted at Queen’s University confirms this performance advantage. Researchers measured the performance of transpired solar air collectors both with and without a selective coating, mounted side-by-side on a south-facing vertical wall. The results showed that the collectors with the selective coating produced 1.3 to 1.5 times more energy than those without it. In 2024, the monitoring results were jointly published by Queen’s University and Canmat Energy in a paper titled Performance Comparison of a Transpired Air Solar Collector with Low-E Surface Coating.
    Selective coating, also used on other solar thermal technologies including glazed flat plate or vacuum tube collectors, has a distinctive blue color. Trigo customers can, however, choose between blue and black finishes. “By going from the normal blue selective coating to black selective coating, which Almeco is specially producing for Trigo, we lose about 1 per cent in solar efficiency,” explained Vachon.
    Figure 2: Building-integrated solar air heating façade with MatrixAir collectors at the firehall building in Mont Saint Hilaire, south of Montreal. The 190 m2south-facing wall preheats the fresh air, reducing natural gas consumption by 18 per cent compared to the conventional make-up system. Architect: Leclerc Architecture. Photo: Matrix Energy
    Matrix Energy: collaborating with architects and engineers in new builds
    The key target customer group of Matrix Energy are public buildings – mainly new construction. “Since the pandemic, schools are more conscious about fresh air, and solar preheating of the incoming fresh air has a positive impact over the entire school year,” noted Brian Wilkinson, President of Matrix Energy.
    Matrix Energy supplies systems across Canada, working with local partners to source and process the metal sheets used in their MatrixAir collectors. These metal sheets are perforated and then formed into architectural cladding profiles. The company exclusively offers unglazed, single-stage collectors, citing fire safety concerns associated with polymeric covers.
    “We have strong relationships with many architects and engineers who appreciate the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of transpired solar air heating systems,” said President Brian Wilkinson, describing the company’s sales approach. “Matrix handles system design and supplies the necessary materials, while installation is carried out by specialized cladding and HVAC contractors overseen by on-site architects and engineers,” Wilkinson added.
    Finding the right flow: the importance of unitary airflow rates
    One of the key design factors in solar air heating systems is the amount of air that passes through each square meter of the perforated metal absorber,  known as the unitary airflow rate. The principle is straightforward: higher airflow rates deliver more total heat to the building, while lower flow rates result in higher outlet air temperatures. Striking the right balance between air volume and temperature gain is essential for efficient system performance.
    For unglazed collectors mounted on building façades, typical hourly flow rates should range between 120 and 170, or 6.6 to 9.4 cfm/ft2. However, Wilkinson suggests that an hourly airflow rate of around 130 m³/h/m²offers the best cost-benefit balance for building owners. If the airflow is lower, the system will deliver higher air temperatures, but it would then need a much larger collector area to achieve the same air volume and optimum performance, he explained.
    It’s also crucial for the flow rate to overcome external wind pressure. As wind passes over the absorber, air flow through the collector’s perforations is reduced, resulting in heat losses to the environment. This effect becomes even more pronounced in taller buildings, where wind exposure is greater. To ensure the system performs well even in these conditions, higher hourly airflow rates typically between 150 and 170 m³/m² are necessary.
    Figure 3: One of three apartment blocks of the Maple House in Toronto’s Canary District. Around 160 m2of SolarWall collectors clad the two-storey mechanical penthouse on the roof. The rental flats have been occupied since the beginning of 2024. Collaborators: architects-Alliance, Claude Cormier et Associés, Thornton Tomasetti, RWDI, Cole Engineering, DesignAgency, MVShore, BA Group, EllisDon. Photo: Conserval Engineering
    Solar air heating systems support LEED-certified building designs
    Solar air collectors are also well-suited for use in multi-unit residential buildings. A prime example is the Canary District in Toronto, where single-stage SolarWall collectors from Conserval Engineering have been installed on several MURBs to clad the mechanical penthouses. “These penthouses are an ideal location for our air heating collectors, as they contain the make-up air units that supply corridor ventilation throughout the building,” explained Victoria Hollick, Vice President of Conserval Engineering. “The walls are typically finished with metal façades, which can be seamlessly replaced with a SolarWall system – maintaining the architectural language without disruption.” To date, nine solar air heating systems have been commissioned in the Canary District, covering a total collector area of over 1,000 m².
    “Our customers have many motivations to integrate SolarWall technology into their new construction or retrofit projects, either carbon reduction, ESG, or green building certification targets,” explained Hollick.
    The use of solar air collectors in the Canary District was proposed by architects from the Danish firm Cobe. The black-colored SolarWall system preheats incoming air before it is distributed to the building’s corridors and common areas, reducing reliance on natural gas heating and supporting the pursuit of LEED Gold certification. Hollick estimates the amount of gas saved between 10 to 20 per cent of the total heating load for the corridor ventilation of the multi-unit residential buildings. Additional energy-saving strategies include a 50/50 window-to-wall ratio with high-performance glazing, green roofs, high-efficiency mechanical systems, LED lighting, and Energy Star-certified appliances.
    The ideal orientation for a SolarWall system is due south. However, the systems can be built at any orientation up to 90° east and west, explained Hollick. A SolarWall at 90° would have approximately 60 per cent of the energy production of the same area facing south.Canada’s expertise in solar air heating continues to set a global benchmark, driven by supporting R&D, by innovative technologies, strategic partnerships, and a growing portfolio of high-impact projects. With strong policy support and proven performance, solar air heating is poised to play a key role in the country’s energy-efficient building future.
    Figure 4: Claude-Bechard Building in Quebec is a showcase project for sustainable architecture with a 72 m2Lubi solar air heating wall from Aéronergie. It serves as a regional administrative center. Architectural firm: Goulet et Lebel Architectes. Photo: Art Massif

    Bärbel Epp is the general manager of the German Agency solrico, whose focus is on solar market research and international communication.
    The post Op-ed: Canada’s leadership in solar air heating—Innovation and flagship projects appeared first on Canadian Architect.
    #oped #canadas #leadership #solar #air
    Op-ed: Canada’s leadership in solar air heating—Innovation and flagship projects
    Solar air heating is among the most cost-effective applications of solar thermal energy. These systems are used for space heating and preheating fresh air for ventilation, typically using glazed or unglazed perforated solar collectors. The collectors draw in outside air, heat it using solar energy, and then distribute it through ductwork to meet building heating and fresh air needs. In 2024, Canada led again the world for the at least seventh year in a row in solar air heating adoption. The four key suppliers – Trigo Energies, Conserval Engineering, Matrix Energy, and Aéronergie – reported a combined 26,203 m2of collector area sold last year. Several of these providers are optimistic about the growing demand. These findings come from the newly released Canadian Solar Thermal Market Survey 2024, commissioned by Natural Resources Canada. Canada is the global leader in solar air heating. The market is driven by a strong network of experienced system suppliers, optimized technologies, and a few small favorable funding programs – especially in the province of Quebec. Architects and developers are increasingly turning to these cost-effective, façade-integrated systems as a practical solution for reducing onsite natural gas consumption. Despite its cold climate, Canada benefits from strong solar potential with solar irradiance in many areas rivaling or even exceeding that of parts of Europe. This makes solar air heating not only viable, but especially valuable in buildings with high fresh air requirements including schools, hospitals, and offices. The projects highlighted in this article showcase the versatility and relevance of solar air heating across a range of building types, from new constructions to retrofits. Figure 1: Preheating air for industrial buildings: 2,750 m2of Calento SL solar air collectors cover all south-west and south-east facing facades of the FAB3R factory in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. The hourly unitary flow rate is set at 41 m3/m2 or 2.23 cfm/ft2 of collector area, at the lower range because only a limited number of intake fans was close enough to the solar façade to avoid long ventilation ductwork. Photo: Trigo Energies Quebec’s solar air heating boom: the Trigo Energies story Trigo Energies makes almost 90 per cent of its sales in Quebec. “We profit from great subsidies, as solar air systems are supported by several organizations in our province – the electricity utility Hydro Quebec, the gas utility Energir and the Ministry of Natural Resources,” explained Christian Vachon, Vice President Technologies and R&D at Trigo Energies. Trigo Energies currently has nine employees directly involved in planning, engineering and installing solar air heating systems and teams up with several partner contractors to install mostly retrofit projects. “A high degree of engineering is required to fit a solar heating system into an existing factory,” emphasized Vachon. “Knowledge about HVAC engineering is as important as experience with solar thermal and architecture.” One recent Trigo installation is at the FAB3R factory in Trois-Rivières. FAB3R specializes in manufacturing, repairing, and refurbishing large industrial equipment. Its air heating and ventilation system needed urgent renovation because of leakages and discomfort for the workers. “Due to many positive references he had from industries in the area, the owner of FAB3R contacted us,” explained Vachon. “The existence of subsidies helped the client to go for a retrofitting project including solar façade at once instead of fixing the problems one bit at a time.” Approximately 50 per cent of the investment costs for both the solar air heating and the renovation of the indoor ventilation system were covered by grants and subsidies. FAB3R profited from an Energir grant targeted at solar preheating, plus an investment subsidy from the Government of Quebec’s EcoPerformance Programme.   Blue or black, but always efficient: the advanced absorber coating In October 2024, the majority of the new 2,750 m²solar façade at FAB3R began operation. According to Vachon, the system is expected to cover approximately 13 per cent of the factory’s annual heating demand, which is otherwise met by natural gas. Trigo Energies equipped the façade with its high-performance Calento SL collectors, featuring a notable innovation: a selective, low-emissivity coating that withstands outdoor conditions. Introduced by Trigo in 2019 and manufactured by Almeco Group from Italy, this advanced coating is engineered to maximize solar absorption while minimizing heat loss via infrared emission, enhancing the overall efficiency of the system. The high efficiency coating is now standard in Trigo’s air heating systems. According to the manufacturer, the improved collector design shows a 25 to 35 per cent increase in yield over the former generation of solar air collectors with black paint. Testing conducted at Queen’s University confirms this performance advantage. Researchers measured the performance of transpired solar air collectors both with and without a selective coating, mounted side-by-side on a south-facing vertical wall. The results showed that the collectors with the selective coating produced 1.3 to 1.5 times more energy than those without it. In 2024, the monitoring results were jointly published by Queen’s University and Canmat Energy in a paper titled Performance Comparison of a Transpired Air Solar Collector with Low-E Surface Coating. Selective coating, also used on other solar thermal technologies including glazed flat plate or vacuum tube collectors, has a distinctive blue color. Trigo customers can, however, choose between blue and black finishes. “By going from the normal blue selective coating to black selective coating, which Almeco is specially producing for Trigo, we lose about 1 per cent in solar efficiency,” explained Vachon. Figure 2: Building-integrated solar air heating façade with MatrixAir collectors at the firehall building in Mont Saint Hilaire, south of Montreal. The 190 m2south-facing wall preheats the fresh air, reducing natural gas consumption by 18 per cent compared to the conventional make-up system. Architect: Leclerc Architecture. Photo: Matrix Energy Matrix Energy: collaborating with architects and engineers in new builds The key target customer group of Matrix Energy are public buildings – mainly new construction. “Since the pandemic, schools are more conscious about fresh air, and solar preheating of the incoming fresh air has a positive impact over the entire school year,” noted Brian Wilkinson, President of Matrix Energy. Matrix Energy supplies systems across Canada, working with local partners to source and process the metal sheets used in their MatrixAir collectors. These metal sheets are perforated and then formed into architectural cladding profiles. The company exclusively offers unglazed, single-stage collectors, citing fire safety concerns associated with polymeric covers. “We have strong relationships with many architects and engineers who appreciate the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of transpired solar air heating systems,” said President Brian Wilkinson, describing the company’s sales approach. “Matrix handles system design and supplies the necessary materials, while installation is carried out by specialized cladding and HVAC contractors overseen by on-site architects and engineers,” Wilkinson added. Finding the right flow: the importance of unitary airflow rates One of the key design factors in solar air heating systems is the amount of air that passes through each square meter of the perforated metal absorber,  known as the unitary airflow rate. The principle is straightforward: higher airflow rates deliver more total heat to the building, while lower flow rates result in higher outlet air temperatures. Striking the right balance between air volume and temperature gain is essential for efficient system performance. For unglazed collectors mounted on building façades, typical hourly flow rates should range between 120 and 170, or 6.6 to 9.4 cfm/ft2. However, Wilkinson suggests that an hourly airflow rate of around 130 m³/h/m²offers the best cost-benefit balance for building owners. If the airflow is lower, the system will deliver higher air temperatures, but it would then need a much larger collector area to achieve the same air volume and optimum performance, he explained. It’s also crucial for the flow rate to overcome external wind pressure. As wind passes over the absorber, air flow through the collector’s perforations is reduced, resulting in heat losses to the environment. This effect becomes even more pronounced in taller buildings, where wind exposure is greater. To ensure the system performs well even in these conditions, higher hourly airflow rates typically between 150 and 170 m³/m² are necessary. Figure 3: One of three apartment blocks of the Maple House in Toronto’s Canary District. Around 160 m2of SolarWall collectors clad the two-storey mechanical penthouse on the roof. The rental flats have been occupied since the beginning of 2024. Collaborators: architects-Alliance, Claude Cormier et Associés, Thornton Tomasetti, RWDI, Cole Engineering, DesignAgency, MVShore, BA Group, EllisDon. Photo: Conserval Engineering Solar air heating systems support LEED-certified building designs Solar air collectors are also well-suited for use in multi-unit residential buildings. A prime example is the Canary District in Toronto, where single-stage SolarWall collectors from Conserval Engineering have been installed on several MURBs to clad the mechanical penthouses. “These penthouses are an ideal location for our air heating collectors, as they contain the make-up air units that supply corridor ventilation throughout the building,” explained Victoria Hollick, Vice President of Conserval Engineering. “The walls are typically finished with metal façades, which can be seamlessly replaced with a SolarWall system – maintaining the architectural language without disruption.” To date, nine solar air heating systems have been commissioned in the Canary District, covering a total collector area of over 1,000 m². “Our customers have many motivations to integrate SolarWall technology into their new construction or retrofit projects, either carbon reduction, ESG, or green building certification targets,” explained Hollick. The use of solar air collectors in the Canary District was proposed by architects from the Danish firm Cobe. The black-colored SolarWall system preheats incoming air before it is distributed to the building’s corridors and common areas, reducing reliance on natural gas heating and supporting the pursuit of LEED Gold certification. Hollick estimates the amount of gas saved between 10 to 20 per cent of the total heating load for the corridor ventilation of the multi-unit residential buildings. Additional energy-saving strategies include a 50/50 window-to-wall ratio with high-performance glazing, green roofs, high-efficiency mechanical systems, LED lighting, and Energy Star-certified appliances. The ideal orientation for a SolarWall system is due south. However, the systems can be built at any orientation up to 90° east and west, explained Hollick. A SolarWall at 90° would have approximately 60 per cent of the energy production of the same area facing south.Canada’s expertise in solar air heating continues to set a global benchmark, driven by supporting R&D, by innovative technologies, strategic partnerships, and a growing portfolio of high-impact projects. With strong policy support and proven performance, solar air heating is poised to play a key role in the country’s energy-efficient building future. Figure 4: Claude-Bechard Building in Quebec is a showcase project for sustainable architecture with a 72 m2Lubi solar air heating wall from Aéronergie. It serves as a regional administrative center. Architectural firm: Goulet et Lebel Architectes. Photo: Art Massif Bärbel Epp is the general manager of the German Agency solrico, whose focus is on solar market research and international communication. The post Op-ed: Canada’s leadership in solar air heating—Innovation and flagship projects appeared first on Canadian Architect. #oped #canadas #leadership #solar #air
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    Op-ed: Canada’s leadership in solar air heating—Innovation and flagship projects
    Solar air heating is among the most cost-effective applications of solar thermal energy. These systems are used for space heating and preheating fresh air for ventilation, typically using glazed or unglazed perforated solar collectors. The collectors draw in outside air, heat it using solar energy, and then distribute it through ductwork to meet building heating and fresh air needs. In 2024, Canada led again the world for the at least seventh year in a row in solar air heating adoption. The four key suppliers – Trigo Energies, Conserval Engineering, Matrix Energy, and Aéronergie – reported a combined 26,203 m2 (282,046 ft2) of collector area sold last year. Several of these providers are optimistic about the growing demand. These findings come from the newly released Canadian Solar Thermal Market Survey 2024, commissioned by Natural Resources Canada. Canada is the global leader in solar air heating. The market is driven by a strong network of experienced system suppliers, optimized technologies, and a few small favorable funding programs – especially in the province of Quebec. Architects and developers are increasingly turning to these cost-effective, façade-integrated systems as a practical solution for reducing onsite natural gas consumption. Despite its cold climate, Canada benefits from strong solar potential with solar irradiance in many areas rivaling or even exceeding that of parts of Europe. This makes solar air heating not only viable, but especially valuable in buildings with high fresh air requirements including schools, hospitals, and offices. The projects highlighted in this article showcase the versatility and relevance of solar air heating across a range of building types, from new constructions to retrofits. Figure 1: Preheating air for industrial buildings: 2,750 m2 (29,600 ft2) of Calento SL solar air collectors cover all south-west and south-east facing facades of the FAB3R factory in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. The hourly unitary flow rate is set at 41 m3/m2 or 2.23 cfm/ft2 of collector area, at the lower range because only a limited number of intake fans was close enough to the solar façade to avoid long ventilation ductwork. Photo: Trigo Energies Quebec’s solar air heating boom: the Trigo Energies story Trigo Energies makes almost 90 per cent of its sales in Quebec. “We profit from great subsidies, as solar air systems are supported by several organizations in our province – the electricity utility Hydro Quebec, the gas utility Energir and the Ministry of Natural Resources,” explained Christian Vachon, Vice President Technologies and R&D at Trigo Energies. Trigo Energies currently has nine employees directly involved in planning, engineering and installing solar air heating systems and teams up with several partner contractors to install mostly retrofit projects. “A high degree of engineering is required to fit a solar heating system into an existing factory,” emphasized Vachon. “Knowledge about HVAC engineering is as important as experience with solar thermal and architecture.” One recent Trigo installation is at the FAB3R factory in Trois-Rivières. FAB3R specializes in manufacturing, repairing, and refurbishing large industrial equipment. Its air heating and ventilation system needed urgent renovation because of leakages and discomfort for the workers. “Due to many positive references he had from industries in the area, the owner of FAB3R contacted us,” explained Vachon. “The existence of subsidies helped the client to go for a retrofitting project including solar façade at once instead of fixing the problems one bit at a time.” Approximately 50 per cent of the investment costs for both the solar air heating and the renovation of the indoor ventilation system were covered by grants and subsidies. FAB3R profited from an Energir grant targeted at solar preheating, plus an investment subsidy from the Government of Quebec’s EcoPerformance Programme.   Blue or black, but always efficient: the advanced absorber coating In October 2024, the majority of the new 2,750 m² (29,600 ft2) solar façade at FAB3R began operation (see figure 1). According to Vachon, the system is expected to cover approximately 13 per cent of the factory’s annual heating demand, which is otherwise met by natural gas. Trigo Energies equipped the façade with its high-performance Calento SL collectors, featuring a notable innovation: a selective, low-emissivity coating that withstands outdoor conditions. Introduced by Trigo in 2019 and manufactured by Almeco Group from Italy, this advanced coating is engineered to maximize solar absorption while minimizing heat loss via infrared emission, enhancing the overall efficiency of the system. The high efficiency coating is now standard in Trigo’s air heating systems. According to the manufacturer, the improved collector design shows a 25 to 35 per cent increase in yield over the former generation of solar air collectors with black paint. Testing conducted at Queen’s University confirms this performance advantage. Researchers measured the performance of transpired solar air collectors both with and without a selective coating, mounted side-by-side on a south-facing vertical wall. The results showed that the collectors with the selective coating produced 1.3 to 1.5 times more energy than those without it. In 2024, the monitoring results were jointly published by Queen’s University and Canmat Energy in a paper titled Performance Comparison of a Transpired Air Solar Collector with Low-E Surface Coating. Selective coating, also used on other solar thermal technologies including glazed flat plate or vacuum tube collectors, has a distinctive blue color. Trigo customers can, however, choose between blue and black finishes. “By going from the normal blue selective coating to black selective coating, which Almeco is specially producing for Trigo, we lose about 1 per cent in solar efficiency,” explained Vachon. Figure 2: Building-integrated solar air heating façade with MatrixAir collectors at the firehall building in Mont Saint Hilaire, south of Montreal. The 190 m2 (2,045 ft2) south-facing wall preheats the fresh air, reducing natural gas consumption by 18 per cent compared to the conventional make-up system. Architect: Leclerc Architecture. Photo: Matrix Energy Matrix Energy: collaborating with architects and engineers in new builds The key target customer group of Matrix Energy are public buildings – mainly new construction. “Since the pandemic, schools are more conscious about fresh air, and solar preheating of the incoming fresh air has a positive impact over the entire school year,” noted Brian Wilkinson, President of Matrix Energy. Matrix Energy supplies systems across Canada, working with local partners to source and process the metal sheets used in their MatrixAir collectors. These metal sheets are perforated and then formed into architectural cladding profiles. The company exclusively offers unglazed, single-stage collectors, citing fire safety concerns associated with polymeric covers. “We have strong relationships with many architects and engineers who appreciate the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of transpired solar air heating systems,” said President Brian Wilkinson, describing the company’s sales approach. “Matrix handles system design and supplies the necessary materials, while installation is carried out by specialized cladding and HVAC contractors overseen by on-site architects and engineers,” Wilkinson added. Finding the right flow: the importance of unitary airflow rates One of the key design factors in solar air heating systems is the amount of air that passes through each square meter of the perforated metal absorber,  known as the unitary airflow rate. The principle is straightforward: higher airflow rates deliver more total heat to the building, while lower flow rates result in higher outlet air temperatures. Striking the right balance between air volume and temperature gain is essential for efficient system performance. For unglazed collectors mounted on building façades, typical hourly flow rates should range between 120 and 170 (m3/h/m2), or 6.6 to 9.4 cfm/ft2. However, Wilkinson suggests that an hourly airflow rate of around 130 m³/h/m² (7.2 cfm/ft2) offers the best cost-benefit balance for building owners. If the airflow is lower, the system will deliver higher air temperatures, but it would then need a much larger collector area to achieve the same air volume and optimum performance, he explained. It’s also crucial for the flow rate to overcome external wind pressure. As wind passes over the absorber, air flow through the collector’s perforations is reduced, resulting in heat losses to the environment. This effect becomes even more pronounced in taller buildings, where wind exposure is greater. To ensure the system performs well even in these conditions, higher hourly airflow rates typically between 150 and 170 m³/m² (8.3 to 9.4 cfm/ft2)  are necessary. Figure 3: One of three apartment blocks of the Maple House in Toronto’s Canary District. Around 160 m2 (1,722 ft2) of SolarWall collectors clad the two-storey mechanical penthouse on the roof. The rental flats have been occupied since the beginning of 2024. Collaborators: architects-Alliance, Claude Cormier et Associés, Thornton Tomasetti, RWDI, Cole Engineering, DesignAgency, MVShore, BA Group, EllisDon. Photo: Conserval Engineering Solar air heating systems support LEED-certified building designs Solar air collectors are also well-suited for use in multi-unit residential buildings. A prime example is the Canary District in Toronto (see Figure 3), where single-stage SolarWall collectors from Conserval Engineering have been installed on several MURBs to clad the mechanical penthouses. “These penthouses are an ideal location for our air heating collectors, as they contain the make-up air units that supply corridor ventilation throughout the building,” explained Victoria Hollick, Vice President of Conserval Engineering. “The walls are typically finished with metal façades, which can be seamlessly replaced with a SolarWall system – maintaining the architectural language without disruption.” To date, nine solar air heating systems have been commissioned in the Canary District, covering a total collector area of over 1,000 m² (10,764 ft2). “Our customers have many motivations to integrate SolarWall technology into their new construction or retrofit projects, either carbon reduction, ESG, or green building certification targets,” explained Hollick. The use of solar air collectors in the Canary District was proposed by architects from the Danish firm Cobe. The black-colored SolarWall system preheats incoming air before it is distributed to the building’s corridors and common areas, reducing reliance on natural gas heating and supporting the pursuit of LEED Gold certification. Hollick estimates the amount of gas saved between 10 to 20 per cent of the total heating load for the corridor ventilation of the multi-unit residential buildings. Additional energy-saving strategies include a 50/50 window-to-wall ratio with high-performance glazing, green roofs, high-efficiency mechanical systems, LED lighting, and Energy Star-certified appliances. The ideal orientation for a SolarWall system is due south. However, the systems can be built at any orientation up to 90° east and west, explained Hollick. A SolarWall at 90° would have approximately 60 per cent of the energy production of the same area facing south.Canada’s expertise in solar air heating continues to set a global benchmark, driven by supporting R&D, by innovative technologies, strategic partnerships, and a growing portfolio of high-impact projects. With strong policy support and proven performance, solar air heating is poised to play a key role in the country’s energy-efficient building future. Figure 4: Claude-Bechard Building in Quebec is a showcase project for sustainable architecture with a 72 m2 (775 ft2) Lubi solar air heating wall from Aéronergie. It serves as a regional administrative center. Architectural firm: Goulet et Lebel Architectes. Photo: Art Massif Bärbel Epp is the general manager of the German Agency solrico, whose focus is on solar market research and international communication. The post Op-ed: Canada’s leadership in solar air heating—Innovation and flagship projects appeared first on Canadian Architect.
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  • Frank Gehry and Gordan Ramsey to star in new film about Battersea Power Station transformation

    Independent UK production company Chief has completed The Masterplan, a new documentary exploring the architectural and cultural transformation of Battersea Power Station in London. After decades of disuse, areas of the station were repurposed by WilkinsonEyre for housing and retail through a £9 billionoverhaul completed in 2022, with Foster + Partners designing a new Apple Store for the station in 2023.
    Directed by Chief’s Nate Camponi and commissioned by Stripe Communications and the Battersea Power Station Development Group, the new film presents an in-depth account of the power station’s history, from its origins as an industrial landmark to its revival as a mixed-use cultural destination. The film uses a combination of historical narrative, visual storytelling, and personal reflections to document the complex process of redeveloping the site and its evolving relationship with the city.
    Jason Flemyng as The Raconteur in The Masterplan. Image courtesy: ChiefA...
    #frank #gehry #gordan #ramsey #star
    Frank Gehry and Gordan Ramsey to star in new film about Battersea Power Station transformation
    Independent UK production company Chief has completed The Masterplan, a new documentary exploring the architectural and cultural transformation of Battersea Power Station in London. After decades of disuse, areas of the station were repurposed by WilkinsonEyre for housing and retail through a £9 billionoverhaul completed in 2022, with Foster + Partners designing a new Apple Store for the station in 2023. Directed by Chief’s Nate Camponi and commissioned by Stripe Communications and the Battersea Power Station Development Group, the new film presents an in-depth account of the power station’s history, from its origins as an industrial landmark to its revival as a mixed-use cultural destination. The film uses a combination of historical narrative, visual storytelling, and personal reflections to document the complex process of redeveloping the site and its evolving relationship with the city. Jason Flemyng as The Raconteur in The Masterplan. Image courtesy: ChiefA... #frank #gehry #gordan #ramsey #star
    ARCHINECT.COM
    Frank Gehry and Gordan Ramsey to star in new film about Battersea Power Station transformation
    Independent UK production company Chief has completed The Masterplan, a new documentary exploring the architectural and cultural transformation of Battersea Power Station in London. After decades of disuse, areas of the station were repurposed by WilkinsonEyre for housing and retail through a £9 billion ($12.2 billion USD) overhaul completed in 2022, with Foster + Partners designing a new Apple Store for the station in 2023. Directed by Chief’s Nate Camponi and commissioned by Stripe Communications and the Battersea Power Station Development Group, the new film presents an in-depth account of the power station’s history, from its origins as an industrial landmark to its revival as a mixed-use cultural destination. The film uses a combination of historical narrative, visual storytelling, and personal reflections to document the complex process of redeveloping the site and its evolving relationship with the city. Jason Flemyng as The Raconteur in The Masterplan. Image courtesy: ChiefA...
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  • WilkinsonEyre and Prague practice win Czech stadium contest

    The duo will create a ball sports arena for local teams and the wider community, providing a new public square and gateway to an exhibition park in České Budějovice, a city 120km south of Prague.
    Inspired by the Möbius strip – a continuous surface with only one side and one edge – the winning design aims to reflect ‘energy, unity, and perpetual motion’ and serve as a catalyst for positive transformation in České Budějovice.
    WilkinsonEyre board director Sam Wright said: ‘We are thrilled to have been selected for this exciting project, which presents a unique opportunity to build on our design expertise and passion for sports architecture.Advertisement

    ‘We look forward to collaborating with our partners to create a world-class venue that inspires both athletes and spectators alike.’
    Boele founding director Petr Suma, who has worked at both WilkinsonEyre and London-based William Matthews Architects, said: ‘By revitalising and redefining the southern entrance to the České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds, this project creates a catalyst for new development on the left bank of České Budějovice.’
    Though the arena is primarily for volleyball, it will also host a range of ball sports, including handball, floorball, basketball and futsal, as well as concerts and conferences.
    The winning proposal was selected unanimously from 29 entries, and construction is expected to begin next year.
    České Budějovice is a major industrial centre with around 96,000 residents. Local landmarks include the Budweiser Budvar Brewery, the Baroque-style Museum of South Bohemia and the Neo-Gothic Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.Advertisement

    A separate contest to remasterplan České Budějovice was launched early last year.
    #wilkinsoneyre #prague #practice #win #czech
    WilkinsonEyre and Prague practice win Czech stadium contest
    The duo will create a ball sports arena for local teams and the wider community, providing a new public square and gateway to an exhibition park in České Budějovice, a city 120km south of Prague. Inspired by the Möbius strip – a continuous surface with only one side and one edge – the winning design aims to reflect ‘energy, unity, and perpetual motion’ and serve as a catalyst for positive transformation in České Budějovice. WilkinsonEyre board director Sam Wright said: ‘We are thrilled to have been selected for this exciting project, which presents a unique opportunity to build on our design expertise and passion for sports architecture.Advertisement ‘We look forward to collaborating with our partners to create a world-class venue that inspires both athletes and spectators alike.’ Boele founding director Petr Suma, who has worked at both WilkinsonEyre and London-based William Matthews Architects, said: ‘By revitalising and redefining the southern entrance to the České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds, this project creates a catalyst for new development on the left bank of České Budějovice.’ Though the arena is primarily for volleyball, it will also host a range of ball sports, including handball, floorball, basketball and futsal, as well as concerts and conferences. The winning proposal was selected unanimously from 29 entries, and construction is expected to begin next year. České Budějovice is a major industrial centre with around 96,000 residents. Local landmarks include the Budweiser Budvar Brewery, the Baroque-style Museum of South Bohemia and the Neo-Gothic Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.Advertisement A separate contest to remasterplan České Budějovice was launched early last year. #wilkinsoneyre #prague #practice #win #czech
    WWW.ARCHITECTSJOURNAL.CO.UK
    WilkinsonEyre and Prague practice win Czech stadium contest
    The duo will create a ball sports arena for local teams and the wider community, providing a new public square and gateway to an exhibition park in České Budějovice, a city 120km south of Prague. Inspired by the Möbius strip – a continuous surface with only one side and one edge – the winning design aims to reflect ‘energy, unity, and perpetual motion’ and serve as a catalyst for positive transformation in České Budějovice. WilkinsonEyre board director Sam Wright said: ‘We are thrilled to have been selected for this exciting project, which presents a unique opportunity to build on our design expertise and passion for sports architecture.Advertisement ‘We look forward to collaborating with our partners to create a world-class venue that inspires both athletes and spectators alike.’ Boele founding director Petr Suma, who has worked at both WilkinsonEyre and London-based William Matthews Architects, said: ‘By revitalising and redefining the southern entrance to the České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds, this project creates a catalyst for new development on the left bank of České Budějovice.’ Though the arena is primarily for volleyball, it will also host a range of ball sports, including handball, floorball, basketball and futsal, as well as concerts and conferences. The winning proposal was selected unanimously from 29 entries, and construction is expected to begin next year. České Budějovice is a major industrial centre with around 96,000 residents. Local landmarks include the Budweiser Budvar Brewery, the Baroque-style Museum of South Bohemia and the Neo-Gothic Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.Advertisement A separate contest to remasterplan České Budějovice was launched early last year.
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  • AR June 2025: Roads

    Mauricio Rocha | TaAU | Alejandro Castro | OMA | Michel Desvigne | Robert Moses | El Equipo Mazzanti | ContraFuerte |  Batlleiroig | Christian Kerez
    Earlier this year, news broke that levels of fine particulate matter in Paris had dropped by an astounding 55 per cent since 2005. Through a combination of regulation and public policy, the city has vastly reduced the number of cars on its streets, introducing bike lanes and public green spaces in the place of around 50,000 parking spaces.
    This issue is dedicated to roads and the architectures that support them. Cities around the world are reckoning with 20th-century car-oriented urban planning, as epitomised by Robert Moses’s New York. Existing roads are increasingly repurposed for broader uses, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of movement. São Paulo’s Minhocão has been gradually reclaimed by residents, and the restoration of a historical promenade in Reus is inclusive for all. Meanwhile, OMA’s new bridge in Bordeaux is designed to host public events – as well as six lanes of motorised traffic.
    Elsewhere, automobile infrastructure continues to expand; in Bahrain, four new car parks stand largely empty, and a roadside service station in Colombia is yet to be occupied. Roads promise prosperity and progress, often with expansionist ambitions; as Nadi Abusaada writes, ‘The road is both the myth and mechanism of the colonial frontier’. 
    Electric vehicles are now heralded as the future of transport, but as Nelo Magalhães writes in this issue’s keynote, ‘EVs do nothing to change the mass of roads or the issue of their maintenance’. The shift needed is more radical and wide‑reaching. 

    1522: Roads

    coverHighway #5, Los Angeles, California, USAis part of Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration, an exhibition on view at the International Center of Photography in New York City until 28 September. In it, a motorway bulldozes its way through suburbia, sending out smaller branches that further subdivide it. Credit: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London
    folioHome follows a family living in a house next to an uncompleted motorway, who reclaim it, temporarily, as an extension of their home. Credit: Album / Alamy
    keynote

    How much does your road weigh?
    Nelo Magalhãesbuilding
    Malecón de Villahermosa by Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, TaAU and Alejandro Castro in Villahermosa, Mexico
    Laure Nashed
    building
    Simon Veil bridge by OMA and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste in Bordeaux, France
    John Bingham-Hall
    reputations

    Robert Moses
    Andy Battlebuilding
    Control and operations centre by El Equipo Mazzanti and ContraFuerte in Bolombolo, Colombia
    Felipe Walter
    essay
    Cape to Cairo
    Sara Salem
    essay
    A short history of the roadblock
    Jan-Werner Müller
    outrage

    The Amazonian road to COP30
    Martha Dillonrevisit
    Schlangenbader Straße estate in Berlin, Germany
    Sophie Lovell
    essay

    Living with the Big Worm
    Richard J Williamsbuilding
    Passeig de Boca de la Mina by Batlleiroig in Reus, Spain
    Blanca Pujals
    essay
    Taking Norway’s scenic routes
    Tomà Berlanda
    building
    Pearling Path car parks by Christian Kerez in Muharraq, Bahrain
    Oliver Wainwright
    typology
    Petrol station
    Tom Wilkinson
    essay
    The road is the frontier
    Nadi Abusaada
    #june #roads
    AR June 2025: Roads
    Mauricio Rocha | TaAU | Alejandro Castro | OMA | Michel Desvigne | Robert Moses | El Equipo Mazzanti | ContraFuerte |  Batlleiroig | Christian Kerez Earlier this year, news broke that levels of fine particulate matter in Paris had dropped by an astounding 55 per cent since 2005. Through a combination of regulation and public policy, the city has vastly reduced the number of cars on its streets, introducing bike lanes and public green spaces in the place of around 50,000 parking spaces. This issue is dedicated to roads and the architectures that support them. Cities around the world are reckoning with 20th-century car-oriented urban planning, as epitomised by Robert Moses’s New York. Existing roads are increasingly repurposed for broader uses, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of movement. São Paulo’s Minhocão has been gradually reclaimed by residents, and the restoration of a historical promenade in Reus is inclusive for all. Meanwhile, OMA’s new bridge in Bordeaux is designed to host public events – as well as six lanes of motorised traffic. Elsewhere, automobile infrastructure continues to expand; in Bahrain, four new car parks stand largely empty, and a roadside service station in Colombia is yet to be occupied. Roads promise prosperity and progress, often with expansionist ambitions; as Nadi Abusaada writes, ‘The road is both the myth and mechanism of the colonial frontier’.  Electric vehicles are now heralded as the future of transport, but as Nelo Magalhães writes in this issue’s keynote, ‘EVs do nothing to change the mass of roads or the issue of their maintenance’. The shift needed is more radical and wide‑reaching.  1522: Roads coverHighway #5, Los Angeles, California, USAis part of Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration, an exhibition on view at the International Center of Photography in New York City until 28 September. In it, a motorway bulldozes its way through suburbia, sending out smaller branches that further subdivide it. Credit: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London folioHome follows a family living in a house next to an uncompleted motorway, who reclaim it, temporarily, as an extension of their home. Credit: Album / Alamy keynote How much does your road weigh? Nelo Magalhãesbuilding Malecón de Villahermosa by Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, TaAU and Alejandro Castro in Villahermosa, Mexico Laure Nashed building Simon Veil bridge by OMA and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste in Bordeaux, France John Bingham-Hall reputations Robert Moses Andy Battlebuilding Control and operations centre by El Equipo Mazzanti and ContraFuerte in Bolombolo, Colombia Felipe Walter essay Cape to Cairo Sara Salem essay A short history of the roadblock Jan-Werner Müller outrage The Amazonian road to COP30 Martha Dillonrevisit Schlangenbader Straße estate in Berlin, Germany Sophie Lovell essay Living with the Big Worm Richard J Williamsbuilding Passeig de Boca de la Mina by Batlleiroig in Reus, Spain Blanca Pujals essay Taking Norway’s scenic routes Tomà Berlanda building Pearling Path car parks by Christian Kerez in Muharraq, Bahrain Oliver Wainwright typology Petrol station Tom Wilkinson essay The road is the frontier Nadi Abusaada #june #roads
    WWW.ARCHITECTURAL-REVIEW.COM
    AR June 2025: Roads
    Mauricio Rocha | TaAU | Alejandro Castro | OMA | Michel Desvigne | Robert Moses | El Equipo Mazzanti | ContraFuerte |  Batlleiroig | Christian Kerez Earlier this year, news broke that levels of fine particulate matter in Paris had dropped by an astounding 55 per cent since 2005. Through a combination of regulation and public policy, the city has vastly reduced the number of cars on its streets, introducing bike lanes and public green spaces in the place of around 50,000 parking spaces. This issue is dedicated to roads and the architectures that support them. Cities around the world are reckoning with 20th-century car-oriented urban planning, as epitomised by Robert Moses’s New York (p36). Existing roads are increasingly repurposed for broader uses, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of movement. São Paulo’s Minhocão has been gradually reclaimed by residents, and the restoration of a historical promenade in Reus is inclusive for all. Meanwhile, OMA’s new bridge in Bordeaux is designed to host public events – as well as six lanes of motorised traffic. Elsewhere, automobile infrastructure continues to expand; in Bahrain, four new car parks stand largely empty, and a roadside service station in Colombia is yet to be occupied. Roads promise prosperity and progress, often with expansionist ambitions; as Nadi Abusaada writes, ‘The road is both the myth and mechanism of the colonial frontier’.  Electric vehicles are now heralded as the future of transport, but as Nelo Magalhães writes in this issue’s keynote, ‘EVs do nothing to change the mass of roads or the issue of their maintenance’. The shift needed is more radical and wide‑reaching.  1522: Roads cover (above)Highway #5, Los Angeles, California, USA (2009) is part of Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration, an exhibition on view at the International Center of Photography in New York City until 28 September. In it, a motorway bulldozes its way through suburbia, sending out smaller branches that further subdivide it. Credit: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London folio (lead image)Home follows a family living in a house next to an uncompleted motorway, who reclaim it, temporarily, as an extension of their home. Credit: Album / Alamy keynote How much does your road weigh? Nelo Magalhãesbuilding Malecón de Villahermosa by Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, TaAU and Alejandro Castro in Villahermosa, Mexico Laure Nashed building Simon Veil bridge by OMA and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste in Bordeaux, France John Bingham-Hall reputations Robert Moses Andy Battlebuilding Control and operations centre by El Equipo Mazzanti and ContraFuerte in Bolombolo, Colombia Felipe Walter essay Cape to Cairo Sara Salem essay A short history of the roadblock Jan-Werner Müller outrage The Amazonian road to COP30 Martha Dillonrevisit Schlangenbader Straße estate in Berlin, Germany Sophie Lovell essay Living with the Big Worm Richard J Williamsbuilding Passeig de Boca de la Mina by Batlleiroig in Reus, Spain Blanca Pujals essay Taking Norway’s scenic routes Tomà Berlanda building Pearling Path car parks by Christian Kerez in Muharraq, Bahrain Oliver Wainwright typology Petrol station Tom Wilkinson essay The road is the frontier Nadi Abusaada
    0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos
  • Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review: Great sounding headphones at a good price

    Macworld

    At a glanceExpert's Rating

    Pros

     Excellent sound quality

     Competitive price

     Impressive battery life

    Cons

    Noise-cancellation could be stronger

    No spatial audio or Dolby Atmos

    Our Verdict
    The noise-cancellation could be a little more effective, but the Px7 S3 provides hi-fi sound quality, along with impressive 30-hour battery life at a much more competitive price than most of its high-end rivals.

    Price When Reviewed
    This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined

    Best Pricing Today

    Apple made some welcome updates to the AirPods Max in April 2025, finally bringing itsoverpriced headphones into the era of high-res audio at long last. In the meanwhile, the Hi-Fi experts at Bowers & Wilkins have released the fourth-generation update for their over-ear Px7 headphones, which now come with the slightly ungainly title of the Px7 S3.

    The U.S. price of the S3 was up in the air because of that little kerfuffle with a worldwide trade war, but the U.K. price was £399 when they went on sale in the U.K. in May, and as of June 2025, you can now buy them on Amazon U.S. for The S3 provides a serious rival to both the AirPods Max and B&W’s own flagship Px8.

    Unsurprisingly, the Px7 S3 looks quite similar to its predecessors, with the sleek lines and minimalist chic that is the trademark of B&W’s headphone range, along with a variety of tasteful pastel shades that you can choose from.

    The S3 is even more minimalist than usual, though, as B&W has managed to reduce the thickness of the earpieces for this new model, and has also reduced the weight to just 300g – compared to 386g for the AirPods Max.

    The earpieces are also padded with memory foam, so the S3 should be light and comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time – and for long journeys too, as it offers an impressive 30 hours of battery life even when using noise-cancellation.

    The Px7 S3 can work in both wired and wireless modes, supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and the AAC codec for Apple devices, as well as aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for our Android friends. There’s no spatial audio at the moment, although B&W has said that it’s developing its own form of spatial audio that will be available via a software update in coming months.

    The PX range had the ability to use USB-C for charging and wired audio years before Apple added that ability to the AirPods Max, and the USB-C port of the Px7 S3 now supports high-res audio formats up to 24-bit/96KHz – slightly higher than the 24-bit/48KHz of the AirPods Max – so it can handle most of the high-res tracks available on Apple Music.

    There’s a USB-C cable included, along with a 3.5mm audio cable too, so you can use the wired connection with most computers and mobile devices, and there’s a hard-shell carrying case thrown in for good measure as well.

    Sound quality is excellent, and the Px7 S3 copes admirably with the heady cocktail of sounds on Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, streamed from Apple Music on my iPad Air. There’s a lot going on in this track with drums and percussion, guitars, horns and tinkling piano all competing for attention, but the Px7 S3 is able to make space so that each instrument remains clear and distinct. It shows a light touch on the rattling percussion that bounces all over the place, and there’s an infectious energy as the horns blare out while Ricky yells – “she looks like a flower, but she stings like a bee!”.

    The Px7 S3 can handle more delicate sounds too. A recent re-watch of The Last Of Usprompts me to go back to Max Richter’s sublime On The Nature Of Daylight. The cellos open the piece with a gentle, winding melody, but the tone of the strings is so sad and mournful that it’s an instant tear-jerker. The sharper tone of the violins and viola adds to the bittersweet mood, and the Px7 S3 creates a sense of space that allows the different strings to float gracefully through the air and weave a delicate dance around each other.

    The Px7 S3 is a winner on sound quality and value for money, but one area where more expensive rivals such as the AirPods Max and Bose QC Ultra do still have an edge is the effectiveness of their noise-cancellation features. The Px7 S3 does a good job at blocking low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an aircraft engine, but higher frequencies, such as the chatter of voices in a busy airport, do still leak through a little.

    Should you buy the B&W Px7 S3?

    If you’re obsessive about noise-cancellation then there are more expensive headphones that can block out background noise more effectively. However, the excellent sound quality and impressive battery life of the Px7 S3, make it a great option for anyone that wants a really high-quality set of headphones at a competitive price.

    We have looked at a number of AirPods Max competitors, see our round up of the Best over-ear headphones.
    #bowers #ampamp #wilkins #px7 #review
    Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review: Great sounding headphones at a good price
    Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros  Excellent sound quality  Competitive price  Impressive battery life Cons Noise-cancellation could be stronger No spatial audio or Dolby Atmos Our Verdict The noise-cancellation could be a little more effective, but the Px7 S3 provides hi-fi sound quality, along with impressive 30-hour battery life at a much more competitive price than most of its high-end rivals. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Apple made some welcome updates to the AirPods Max in April 2025, finally bringing itsoverpriced headphones into the era of high-res audio at long last. In the meanwhile, the Hi-Fi experts at Bowers & Wilkins have released the fourth-generation update for their over-ear Px7 headphones, which now come with the slightly ungainly title of the Px7 S3. The U.S. price of the S3 was up in the air because of that little kerfuffle with a worldwide trade war, but the U.K. price was £399 when they went on sale in the U.K. in May, and as of June 2025, you can now buy them on Amazon U.S. for The S3 provides a serious rival to both the AirPods Max and B&W’s own flagship Px8. Unsurprisingly, the Px7 S3 looks quite similar to its predecessors, with the sleek lines and minimalist chic that is the trademark of B&W’s headphone range, along with a variety of tasteful pastel shades that you can choose from. The S3 is even more minimalist than usual, though, as B&W has managed to reduce the thickness of the earpieces for this new model, and has also reduced the weight to just 300g – compared to 386g for the AirPods Max. The earpieces are also padded with memory foam, so the S3 should be light and comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time – and for long journeys too, as it offers an impressive 30 hours of battery life even when using noise-cancellation. The Px7 S3 can work in both wired and wireless modes, supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and the AAC codec for Apple devices, as well as aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for our Android friends. There’s no spatial audio at the moment, although B&W has said that it’s developing its own form of spatial audio that will be available via a software update in coming months. The PX range had the ability to use USB-C for charging and wired audio years before Apple added that ability to the AirPods Max, and the USB-C port of the Px7 S3 now supports high-res audio formats up to 24-bit/96KHz – slightly higher than the 24-bit/48KHz of the AirPods Max – so it can handle most of the high-res tracks available on Apple Music. There’s a USB-C cable included, along with a 3.5mm audio cable too, so you can use the wired connection with most computers and mobile devices, and there’s a hard-shell carrying case thrown in for good measure as well. Sound quality is excellent, and the Px7 S3 copes admirably with the heady cocktail of sounds on Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, streamed from Apple Music on my iPad Air. There’s a lot going on in this track with drums and percussion, guitars, horns and tinkling piano all competing for attention, but the Px7 S3 is able to make space so that each instrument remains clear and distinct. It shows a light touch on the rattling percussion that bounces all over the place, and there’s an infectious energy as the horns blare out while Ricky yells – “she looks like a flower, but she stings like a bee!”. The Px7 S3 can handle more delicate sounds too. A recent re-watch of The Last Of Usprompts me to go back to Max Richter’s sublime On The Nature Of Daylight. The cellos open the piece with a gentle, winding melody, but the tone of the strings is so sad and mournful that it’s an instant tear-jerker. The sharper tone of the violins and viola adds to the bittersweet mood, and the Px7 S3 creates a sense of space that allows the different strings to float gracefully through the air and weave a delicate dance around each other. The Px7 S3 is a winner on sound quality and value for money, but one area where more expensive rivals such as the AirPods Max and Bose QC Ultra do still have an edge is the effectiveness of their noise-cancellation features. The Px7 S3 does a good job at blocking low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an aircraft engine, but higher frequencies, such as the chatter of voices in a busy airport, do still leak through a little. Should you buy the B&W Px7 S3? If you’re obsessive about noise-cancellation then there are more expensive headphones that can block out background noise more effectively. However, the excellent sound quality and impressive battery life of the Px7 S3, make it a great option for anyone that wants a really high-quality set of headphones at a competitive price. We have looked at a number of AirPods Max competitors, see our round up of the Best over-ear headphones. #bowers #ampamp #wilkins #px7 #review
    WWW.MACWORLD.COM
    Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review: Great sounding headphones at a good price
    Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros  Excellent sound quality  Competitive price  Impressive battery life Cons Noise-cancellation could be stronger No spatial audio or Dolby Atmos Our Verdict The noise-cancellation could be a little more effective, but the Px7 S3 provides hi-fi sound quality, along with impressive 30-hour battery life at a much more competitive price than most of its high-end rivals. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Apple made some welcome updates to the AirPods Max in April 2025, finally bringing its (still) overpriced headphones into the era of high-res audio at long last. In the meanwhile, the Hi-Fi experts at Bowers & Wilkins have released the fourth-generation update for their over-ear Px7 headphones, which now come with the slightly ungainly title of the Px7 S3. The U.S. price of the S3 was up in the air because of that little kerfuffle with a worldwide trade war, but the U.K. price was £399 when they went on sale in the U.K. in May, and as of June 2025, you can now buy them on Amazon U.S. for $449. The S3 provides a serious rival to both the AirPods Max and B&W’s own flagship Px8. Unsurprisingly, the Px7 S3 looks quite similar to its predecessors, with the sleek lines and minimalist chic that is the trademark of B&W’s headphone range, along with a variety of tasteful pastel shades that you can choose from. The S3 is even more minimalist than usual, though, as B&W has managed to reduce the thickness of the earpieces for this new model, and has also reduced the weight to just 300g – compared to 386g for the AirPods Max. The earpieces are also padded with memory foam, so the S3 should be light and comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time – and for long journeys too, as it offers an impressive 30 hours of battery life even when using noise-cancellation. The Px7 S3 can work in both wired and wireless modes, supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and the AAC codec for Apple devices, as well as aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for our Android friends. There’s no spatial audio at the moment, although B&W has said that it’s developing its own form of spatial audio that will be available via a software update in coming months. The PX range had the ability to use USB-C for charging and wired audio years before Apple added that ability to the AirPods Max, and the USB-C port of the Px7 S3 now supports high-res audio formats up to 24-bit/96KHz – slightly higher than the 24-bit/48KHz of the AirPods Max – so it can handle most of the high-res tracks available on Apple Music. There’s a USB-C cable included, along with a 3.5mm audio cable too, so you can use the wired connection with most computers and mobile devices, and there’s a hard-shell carrying case thrown in for good measure as well. Sound quality is excellent, and the Px7 S3 copes admirably with the heady cocktail of sounds on Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, streamed from Apple Music on my iPad Air. There’s a lot going on in this track with drums and percussion, guitars, horns and tinkling piano all competing for attention, but the Px7 S3 is able to make space so that each instrument remains clear and distinct. It shows a light touch on the rattling percussion that bounces all over the place, and there’s an infectious energy as the horns blare out while Ricky yells – “she looks like a flower, but she stings like a bee!”. The Px7 S3 can handle more delicate sounds too. A recent re-watch of The Last Of Us (episode 3) prompts me to go back to Max Richter’s sublime On The Nature Of Daylight. The cellos open the piece with a gentle, winding melody, but the tone of the strings is so sad and mournful that it’s an instant tear-jerker. The sharper tone of the violins and viola adds to the bittersweet mood, and the Px7 S3 creates a sense of space that allows the different strings to float gracefully through the air and weave a delicate dance around each other. The Px7 S3 is a winner on sound quality and value for money, but one area where more expensive rivals such as the AirPods Max and Bose QC Ultra do still have an edge is the effectiveness of their noise-cancellation features. The Px7 S3 does a good job at blocking low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an aircraft engine, but higher frequencies, such as the chatter of voices in a busy airport, do still leak through a little. Should you buy the B&W Px7 S3? If you’re obsessive about noise-cancellation then there are more expensive headphones that can block out background noise more effectively. However, the excellent sound quality and impressive battery life of the Px7 S3, make it a great option for anyone that wants a really high-quality set of headphones at a competitive price. We have looked at a number of AirPods Max competitors, see our round up of the Best over-ear headphones.
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  • Marshall’s first soundbar will change how we think about home theater

    With its gold accents, prominent control knobs, and guitar amp styling, Marshall’s hefty Heston 120 looks like no other soundbar on the planet. But what fascinates me about the company’s first TV speaker isn’t the styling, it’s how it’s been engineered to work with the company’s equally iconic portable Bluetooth speakers: It uses Bluetooth.
    Wait, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me because this is actually a new and intriguing change to the way soundbars work.

    Recommended Videos

    Marshall Heston 120
    Marshall
    First, a quick 101 on the Heston 120. It’s priced at which should tell you right away that Marshall isn’t messing around. That’s the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3, and only more than the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar.
    It packs 11 drivers, including two dedicated subwoofers, and can process both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. It has onboard mics that are used for room calibration, and it supports a wide array of protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. On the back panel, you get an Ethernet jack, an HDMI passthrough input with 4K/120Hz/Dolby Vision support, stereo RCA analog jacks, and a dedicated subwoofer output — something you rarely find on soundbars. 
    Marshall has redesigned its mobile app to give people deep controls over the Heston as well as the company’s full range of existing headphones, earbuds, and speakers.
    Expansion via Bluetooth
    Marshall
    Where things get interesting is on the wireless side of the equation. The Heston 120 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not unusual — all three of its competitors I mentioned above have the same or similar specs. What *is* unusual is how it uses these connections, specifically Bluetooth.
    Marshall considers the Heston 120 an all-in-one speaker that’s designed to work equally well for movies and music. However, the company also recognizes that some people want even more immersion from their TV sound systems, so it offers expansion via wireless speakers.
    Normally, when a soundbar is expandable with additional speakers, those connections are made via Wi-Fior dedicated onboard transmitter/receivers. Bluetooth has never been considered a viable option because of issues around latency and limitations on transmitting multiple audio channelssimultaneously.
    However, the Heston 120 is Bluetooth Auracast compatible — as far as I know, that’s a first for a soundbar — a technology that overcomes traditional Bluetooth limitations.
    Unlike earlier Bluetooth standards, which could create audio lag of 100-300 milliseconds, Auracast can achieve a latency of as little as 30 milliseconds. That should be almost imperceptible for dialogue synchronization, and even less noticeable for low-frequency bass or surround sound effects.
    Moreover, an Auracast device, like a TV or soundbar, can transmit multiple discrete broadcasts. In theory, it could handle multiple wireless subwoofers, two or four surround speakers, plus one or more wireless headphones or hearing aids — each with a dedicated sound stream.
    More choice, more flexibility
    Marshall Emberton III Marshall
    So what does this mean? Marshall’s ultimate goal is to let you use any pair of Auracast-capable Bluetooth speakers as your Heston 120 left/right surrounds, and an additional Auracast subwoofer for low-frequency effects.
    Initially, however, the plan is more conservative. At launch, the Heston 120 will support a single Marshall-built wireless subwoofer and later in the year you’ll be able to add two Marshall Bluetooth speakers as left/right surrounds.
    You’ll have a lot of choice — all of Marshall’s third-gen Homeline Bluetooth speakers are Auracast-ready — from the small but mighty Emberton III to the 120-watt Woburn III. Once they receive a planned firmware update, you can expect them all to work with the Heston as satellite speakers via Bluetooth.
    Typically, wireless surround speakers and subwoofers need to be plugged into a wall at all times. That provides power to the built-in amplifiers and their Wi-Fi network connections. Bluetooth, as a wireless technology, requires way less power than Wi-Fi, so if your Marshall portable Bluetooth speaker has a 20-hour battery, that’s 20 hours of completely wire-free home theater listening.
    And if, for some reason, you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you can still assemble a multi-speaker system.
    Marshall points out that while Auracast is an open standard, each company can implement it as it sees fit, and that could mean that some Auracast speakers won’t work with the Heston 120. JBL Auracast speakers like the Charge 6 — for example — can only share and access audio from other JBL Auracast speakers.
    Still, Auracast-enabled soundbars like the Heston are opening up a new era in home theater technology; one where we’ll have a lot more freedom to choose the kind, number, and placement of speakers. It will also reduce the number of gadgets we buy. When your portable Bluetooth speaker can double as a surround speaker, that’s one less device in our ever-expanding world of tech.
    More options coming soon
    Auracast-enabled soundbars are the first step toward greater flexibility and choice in home theater. Soon, there will be more alternatives. Dolby has promised it will launch a soundbar alternative technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will let a compatible TV send multichannel audio to a variety of wireless speakers that you’ll be able to place almost anywhere in your room.
    Fraunhofer IIS, the entity that gave us the MP3 file format, has its own version of FlexConnect — the somewhat awkwardly named UpHear Flexible Rendering. We haven’t seen any commercially available systems based on either Dolby’s or Fraunhofer’s tech so far, but I expect that to change in 2025.
    #marshalls #first #soundbar #will #change
    Marshall’s first soundbar will change how we think about home theater
    With its gold accents, prominent control knobs, and guitar amp styling, Marshall’s hefty Heston 120 looks like no other soundbar on the planet. But what fascinates me about the company’s first TV speaker isn’t the styling, it’s how it’s been engineered to work with the company’s equally iconic portable Bluetooth speakers: It uses Bluetooth. Wait, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me because this is actually a new and intriguing change to the way soundbars work. Recommended Videos Marshall Heston 120 Marshall First, a quick 101 on the Heston 120. It’s priced at which should tell you right away that Marshall isn’t messing around. That’s the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3, and only more than the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar. It packs 11 drivers, including two dedicated subwoofers, and can process both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. It has onboard mics that are used for room calibration, and it supports a wide array of protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. On the back panel, you get an Ethernet jack, an HDMI passthrough input with 4K/120Hz/Dolby Vision support, stereo RCA analog jacks, and a dedicated subwoofer output — something you rarely find on soundbars.  Marshall has redesigned its mobile app to give people deep controls over the Heston as well as the company’s full range of existing headphones, earbuds, and speakers. Expansion via Bluetooth Marshall Where things get interesting is on the wireless side of the equation. The Heston 120 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not unusual — all three of its competitors I mentioned above have the same or similar specs. What *is* unusual is how it uses these connections, specifically Bluetooth. Marshall considers the Heston 120 an all-in-one speaker that’s designed to work equally well for movies and music. However, the company also recognizes that some people want even more immersion from their TV sound systems, so it offers expansion via wireless speakers. Normally, when a soundbar is expandable with additional speakers, those connections are made via Wi-Fior dedicated onboard transmitter/receivers. Bluetooth has never been considered a viable option because of issues around latency and limitations on transmitting multiple audio channelssimultaneously. However, the Heston 120 is Bluetooth Auracast compatible — as far as I know, that’s a first for a soundbar — a technology that overcomes traditional Bluetooth limitations. Unlike earlier Bluetooth standards, which could create audio lag of 100-300 milliseconds, Auracast can achieve a latency of as little as 30 milliseconds. That should be almost imperceptible for dialogue synchronization, and even less noticeable for low-frequency bass or surround sound effects. Moreover, an Auracast device, like a TV or soundbar, can transmit multiple discrete broadcasts. In theory, it could handle multiple wireless subwoofers, two or four surround speakers, plus one or more wireless headphones or hearing aids — each with a dedicated sound stream. More choice, more flexibility Marshall Emberton III Marshall So what does this mean? Marshall’s ultimate goal is to let you use any pair of Auracast-capable Bluetooth speakers as your Heston 120 left/right surrounds, and an additional Auracast subwoofer for low-frequency effects. Initially, however, the plan is more conservative. At launch, the Heston 120 will support a single Marshall-built wireless subwoofer and later in the year you’ll be able to add two Marshall Bluetooth speakers as left/right surrounds. You’ll have a lot of choice — all of Marshall’s third-gen Homeline Bluetooth speakers are Auracast-ready — from the small but mighty Emberton III to the 120-watt Woburn III. Once they receive a planned firmware update, you can expect them all to work with the Heston as satellite speakers via Bluetooth. Typically, wireless surround speakers and subwoofers need to be plugged into a wall at all times. That provides power to the built-in amplifiers and their Wi-Fi network connections. Bluetooth, as a wireless technology, requires way less power than Wi-Fi, so if your Marshall portable Bluetooth speaker has a 20-hour battery, that’s 20 hours of completely wire-free home theater listening. And if, for some reason, you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you can still assemble a multi-speaker system. Marshall points out that while Auracast is an open standard, each company can implement it as it sees fit, and that could mean that some Auracast speakers won’t work with the Heston 120. JBL Auracast speakers like the Charge 6 — for example — can only share and access audio from other JBL Auracast speakers. Still, Auracast-enabled soundbars like the Heston are opening up a new era in home theater technology; one where we’ll have a lot more freedom to choose the kind, number, and placement of speakers. It will also reduce the number of gadgets we buy. When your portable Bluetooth speaker can double as a surround speaker, that’s one less device in our ever-expanding world of tech. More options coming soon Auracast-enabled soundbars are the first step toward greater flexibility and choice in home theater. Soon, there will be more alternatives. Dolby has promised it will launch a soundbar alternative technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will let a compatible TV send multichannel audio to a variety of wireless speakers that you’ll be able to place almost anywhere in your room. Fraunhofer IIS, the entity that gave us the MP3 file format, has its own version of FlexConnect — the somewhat awkwardly named UpHear Flexible Rendering. We haven’t seen any commercially available systems based on either Dolby’s or Fraunhofer’s tech so far, but I expect that to change in 2025. #marshalls #first #soundbar #will #change
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    Marshall’s first soundbar will change how we think about home theater
    With its gold accents, prominent control knobs, and guitar amp styling, Marshall’s hefty Heston 120 looks like no other soundbar on the planet. But what fascinates me about the company’s first TV speaker isn’t the styling (it looks exactly like I’d expect from a Marshall product), it’s how it’s been engineered to work with the company’s equally iconic portable Bluetooth speakers: It uses Bluetooth. Wait, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me because this is actually a new and intriguing change to the way soundbars work. Recommended Videos Marshall Heston 120 Marshall First, a quick 101 on the Heston 120. It’s priced at $1,000, which should tell you right away that Marshall isn’t messing around. That’s the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3, and only $100 more than the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar. It packs 11 drivers, including two dedicated subwoofers, and can process both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. It has onboard mics that are used for room calibration, and it supports a wide array of protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. On the back panel, you get an Ethernet jack, an HDMI passthrough input with 4K/120Hz/Dolby Vision support, stereo RCA analog jacks (for a turntable or other gear), and a dedicated subwoofer output — something you rarely find on soundbars.  Marshall has redesigned its mobile app to give people deep controls over the Heston as well as the company’s full range of existing headphones, earbuds, and speakers. Expansion via Bluetooth Marshall Where things get interesting is on the wireless side of the equation. The Heston 120 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not unusual — all three of its competitors I mentioned above have the same or similar specs. What *is* unusual is how it uses these connections, specifically Bluetooth. Marshall considers the Heston 120 an all-in-one speaker that’s designed to work equally well for movies and music. However, the company also recognizes that some people want even more immersion from their TV sound systems, so it offers expansion via wireless speakers. Normally, when a soundbar is expandable with additional speakers, those connections are made via Wi-Fi (Sonos, Bluesound, Denon) or dedicated onboard transmitter/receivers (Bose, Sony, Klipsch). Bluetooth has never been considered a viable option because of issues around latency and limitations on transmitting multiple audio channels (e.g. low frequency, surround left, surround right) simultaneously. However, the Heston 120 is Bluetooth Auracast compatible — as far as I know, that’s a first for a soundbar — a technology that overcomes traditional Bluetooth limitations. Unlike earlier Bluetooth standards, which could create audio lag of 100-300 milliseconds, Auracast can achieve a latency of as little as 30 milliseconds. That should be almost imperceptible for dialogue synchronization, and even less noticeable for low-frequency bass or surround sound effects. Moreover, an Auracast device, like a TV or soundbar, can transmit multiple discrete broadcasts. In theory, it could handle multiple wireless subwoofers, two or four surround speakers, plus one or more wireless headphones or hearing aids — each with a dedicated sound stream. More choice, more flexibility Marshall Emberton III Marshall So what does this mean? Marshall’s ultimate goal is to let you use any pair of Auracast-capable Bluetooth speakers as your Heston 120 left/right surrounds, and an additional Auracast subwoofer for low-frequency effects. Initially, however, the plan is more conservative. At launch, the Heston 120 will support a single Marshall-built wireless subwoofer and later in the year you’ll be able to add two Marshall Bluetooth speakers as left/right surrounds. You’ll have a lot of choice — all of Marshall’s third-gen Homeline Bluetooth speakers are Auracast-ready — from the small but mighty Emberton III to the 120-watt Woburn III. Once they receive a planned firmware update, you can expect them all to work with the Heston as satellite speakers via Bluetooth. Typically, wireless surround speakers and subwoofers need to be plugged into a wall at all times. That provides power to the built-in amplifiers and their Wi-Fi network connections. Bluetooth, as a wireless technology, requires way less power than Wi-Fi, so if your Marshall portable Bluetooth speaker has a 20-hour battery, that’s 20 hours of completely wire-free home theater listening. And if, for some reason, you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you can still assemble a multi-speaker system. Marshall points out that while Auracast is an open standard, each company can implement it as it sees fit, and that could mean that some Auracast speakers won’t work with the Heston 120. JBL Auracast speakers like the Charge 6 — for example — can only share and access audio from other JBL Auracast speakers. Still, Auracast-enabled soundbars like the Heston are opening up a new era in home theater technology; one where we’ll have a lot more freedom to choose the kind, number, and placement of speakers. It will also reduce the number of gadgets we buy. When your portable Bluetooth speaker can double as a surround speaker, that’s one less device in our ever-expanding world of tech. More options coming soon Auracast-enabled soundbars are the first step toward greater flexibility and choice in home theater. Soon, there will be more alternatives. Dolby has promised it will launch a soundbar alternative technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will let a compatible TV send multichannel audio to a variety of wireless speakers that you’ll be able to place almost anywhere in your room. Fraunhofer IIS, the entity that gave us the MP3 file format, has its own version of FlexConnect — the somewhat awkwardly named UpHear Flexible Rendering. We haven’t seen any commercially available systems based on either Dolby’s or Fraunhofer’s tech so far, but I expect that to change in 2025.
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  • A Public Health Researcher and Her Engineer Husband Found How Diseases Can Spread through Air Decades before the COVID Pandemic

    May 21, 202522 min readMildred Weeks Wells’s Work on Airborne Transmission Could Have Saved Many Lives—If the Scientific Establishment ListenedMildred Weeks Wells and her husband figured out that disease-causing pathogens can spread through the air like smoke Dutton; Lily WhearAir-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer, charts the history of the field of aerobiology: the science of airborne microorganisms. In this episode, we discover the story of two lost pioneers of the 1930s: physician and self-taught epidemiologist Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, sanitary engineer William Firth Wells. Together, they proved that infectious pathogens could spread through the air over long distances. But the two had a reputation as outsiders, and they failed to convince the scientific establishment, who ignored their findings for decades. What the pair figured out could have saved many lives from tuberculosis, SARS, COVID and other airborne diseases. The contributions of Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband were all but erased from history—until now.LISTEN TO THE PODCASTOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.TRANSCRIPTCarl Zimmer: Mildred is hired in the late 1920s to put together everything that was known about polio. And she does this incredible study, where she basically looks for everything that she can find about how polio spreads.At the time, the idea that it could spread through the air was really looked at as being just an obsolete superstition. Public health experts would say, look, a patient's breath is basically harmless. But the epidemiology looks to her like these germs are airborne, and this goes totally against the consensus at the time.Carol Sutton Lewis: Hello, I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. Welcome to the latest episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, where we talk with authors and artists who've discovered and celebrated female scientists in books, poetry, film, and the visual arts.Today I'm joined by Carl Zimmer, an award-winning New York Times columnist and the author of 15 books about science. His latest book, Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, focuses on the last great biological frontier: the air. It presents the history of aerobiology, which is the science dealing with the occurrence, transportation, and effects of airborne microorganisms.The book chronicles the exploits of committed aerobiologists from the early pioneers through to the present day. Among these pioneers were Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, William Firth Wells.Airborne tells the story of how Mildred and William tried to sound the alarm about airborne infections, but for many reasons, their warnings went unheard.Welcome, Carl Zimmer. It's such a pleasure to have you with us to tell us all about this fascinating woman and her contributions to science.Can you please tell us about Mildred Weeks Wells—where and how she grew up and what led her to the field of aerobiology?Carl Zimmer: She was born in 1891, and she came from a very prominent Texas family—the Denton family. Her great-grandfather is actually whom the city of Denton, Texas is named after. Her grandfather was a surgeon for the Confederate Army in the Civil War, and he becomes the director of what was called then the State Lunatic Asylum.And he and the bookkeeper there, William Weeks, are both charged with embezzlement. It's a big scandal. The bookkeeper then marries Mildred's mother. Then, shortly after Mildred's born, her father disappears. Her mother basically abandons her with her grandmother. And she grows up with her sister and grandmother in Austin, Texas. A comfortable life, but obviously there's a lot of scandal hanging over them.She is clearly incredibly strong-willed. She goes to medical school at the University of Texas and graduates in 1915, one of three women in a class of 34. That is really something for a woman at that point—there were hardly any women with medical degrees in the United States, let alone someone in Texas.But she books out of there. She does not stick around. She heads in 1915 to Washington, D.C., and works at the Public Health Service in a lab called the Hygienic Laboratory. Basically, what they're doing is studying bacteria. You have to remember, this is the golden age of the germ theory of disease. People have been figuring out that particular bacteria or viruses cause particular diseases, and that knowledge is helping them fight those diseases.It's there in Washington at this time that she meets a man who will become her husband, William Firth Wells.Carol Sutton Lewis: Just a quick aside—because we at Lost Women of Science are always interested in how you discover the material in addition to what you've discovered. How were you able to piece together her story? What sources were you able to find? It seems like there wasn't a lot of information available.Carl Zimmer: Yeah, it was a tough process. There is little information that's really easy to get your hands on. I mean, there is no biography of Mildred Wells or her husband, William Firth Wells.At the Rockefeller archives, they had maybe 30 document boxes full of stuff that was just miraculously conserved there. There are also letters that she wrote to people that have been saved in various collections.But especially with her early years, it's really tough. You know, in all my work trying to dig down for every single scrap of information I could find of her, I have only found one photograph of her—and it's the photograph in her yearbook. That’s it.Carol Sutton Lewis: You talked about that photograph in the book, and I was struck by your description of it. You say that she's smiling, but the longer you look at her smile, the sadder it becomes. What do you think at that young age was the source of the sadness?Carl Zimmer: I think that Mildred grew up with a lot of trauma. She was not the sort of person to keep long journals or write long letters about these sorts of things. But when you've come across those clues in these brief little newspaper accounts, you can kind of read between the lines.There are reports in newspapers saying that Mildred's mother had come to Austin to pay a visit to Mildred because she had scarlet fever when she was 10, and then she goes away again. And when I look at her face in her yearbook, it doesn't surprise me that there is this cast of melancholy to it because you just think about what she had gone through just as a kid.Carol Sutton Lewis: Oh. Absolutely. And fast forward, she meets William and they marry. They have a son, and they start collaborating. How did that begin?Carl Zimmer: The collaboration takes a while. So William Wells is also working at the Public Health Service at the time. He is a few years older than Mildred and he has been trained at MIT as what was called then a sanitarian. In other words, he was going to take the germ theory of disease and was going to save people's lives.He was very clever. He could invent tests that a sanitarian could use, dip a little tube into a river and see whether the water was safe or not, things like that. He was particularly focused on keeping water clean of bacteria that could cause diseases like typhoid or cholera and he also, gets assigned by the government to study oysters because oysters, they sit in this water and they're filtering all day long. And you know, if there's bacteria in there, they're going to filter it and trap it in their tissues. And oysters are incredibly popular in the early nineteen hundreds and a shocking number of people are keeling over dying of typhoid because they're eating them raw. So William is very busy, figuring out ways to save the oyster industry. How do we purify oysters and things like that? They meet, they get married in 1917.In 1918 they have a child, William Jr. nicknamed Bud. But William is not around for the birth, because he is drafted into the army, and he goes off to serve. in World War I.Carol Sutton Lewis: So Mildred is at home with Bud and William's off at the war. But ultimately, Mildred returns to science. A few years later, where she is hired as a polio detective. Can you tell me a little bit about what the state of polio knowledge was at the time and what precisely a polio detective did?Carl Zimmer: It doesn't seem like polio really was a thing in the United States until the late 1800s. And then suddenly there's this mysterious disease that can strike children with no warning. These kids can't. walk, or suddenly these kids are dying. Not only are the symptoms completely terrifying to parents, but how it spreads is a complete mystery. And so Mildred, seems to have been hired at some point in the late 1920s To basically put together everything that was known about polio to help doctors to deal with their patients and to, you know, encourage future science to try to figure out what is this disease.You know, Mildred wasn't trained in epidemiology. So it's kind of remarkable that she taught herself. And she would turn out to be a really great epidemiologist. But, in any case, She gets hired by the International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis, that was the name then for polio. And she does this incredible study, where she basically looks for everything that she can find about how polio spreads. Case studies where, in a town, like this child got polio, then this child did, and did they have contact and what sort of contact, what season was it? What was the weather like? All these different factors.And one thing that's really important to bear in mind is that, at this time, the prevailing view was that diseases spread by water, by food, by sex, by close contact. Maybe like someone just coughs and sprays droplets on you, but otherwise it's these other routes.The idea that it could spread through the air was really looked at as being just obsolete superstition. for thousands of years, people talked about miasmas, somehow the air mysteriously became corrupted and that made people sick with different diseases. That was all thrown out in the late 1800s, early 1900s when germ theory really takes hold. And so public health experts would say, look, a patient's breath is basically harmless.Carol Sutton Lewis: But Mildred doesn't agree, does she?Carl Zimmer: Well, Mildred Wells is looking at all of this, data and she is starting to get an idea that maybe these public health experts have been too quick to dismiss the air. So when people are talking about droplet infections in the 1920s, they're basically just talking about, big droplets that someone might just sneeze in your face. But the epidemiology looks to her like these germs are airborne, are spreading long distances through the air.So Mildred is starting to make a distinction in her mind about what she calls airborne and droplet infections. So, and this is really the time that the Wellses collectively are thinking about airborne infection and it's Mildred is doing it. And William actually gives her credit for this later on.Carol Sutton Lewis: Right. and her results are published in a book about polio written entirely by female authors, which is quite unusual for the time.Carl Zimmer: Mm hmm. Right. The book is published in 1932, and the reception just tells you so much about what it was like to be a woman in science. The New England Journal of Medicine reviews the book, which is great. But, here's a line that they give, they say, it is interesting to note that this book is entirely the product of women in medicine and is the first book.So far as a reviewer knows. by a number of authors, all of whom are of the female sex. So it's this: Oh, look at this oddity. And basically, the virtue of that is that women are really thorough, I, guess. so it's a very detailed book. And the reviewer writes, no one is better fitted than a woman to collect data such as this book contains. So there's no okay, this is very useful.Carol Sutton Lewis: PatronizeCarl Zimmer: Yeah. Thank you very much. Reviewers were just skating over the conclusions that they were drawing, I guess because they were women. Yeah, pretty incredible.Carol Sutton Lewis: So she is the first to submit scientific proof about this potential for airborne transmission. And that was pretty much dismissed. It wasn't even actively dismissed.It was just, nah, these women, nothing's coming outta that, except William did pay attention. I believe he too had been thinking about airborne transmission for some time and then started seriously looking at Mildred's conclusion when he started teaching at Harvard.Carl Zimmer: Yeah. So, William gets a job as a low level instructor at Harvard. He's getting paid very little. Mildred has no income. He's teaching about hygiene and sanitation, but apparently he's a terrible teacher. But he is a clever, brilliant engineer and scientist; he very quickly develops an idea that probably originated in the work that Mildred had been doing on polio. that maybe diseases actually can spread long distances through the air. So there are large droplets that we might sneeze out and cough out and, and they go a short distance before gravity pulls them down. But physics dictates that below a certain size, droplets can resist gravity.This is something that's going totally against what all the, the really prominent public health figures are saying. William Wells doesn't care. He goes ahead and he starts to, invent a way to sample air for germs. Basically it's a centrifuge. You plug it in, the fan spins, it sucks in air, the air comes up inside a glass cylinder and then as it's spinning, if there are any droplets of particles or anything floating in the air, they get flung out to the sideS.And so afterwards you just pull out the glass which is coated with, food for microbes to grow on and you put it in a nice warm place. And If there's anything in the air, you'll be able to grow a colony and see it.Carol Sutton Lewis: Amazing.Carl Zimmer: It is amazing. This, this was a crucial inventionCarol Sutton Lewis: So we have William, who is with Mildred's help moving more towards the possibility of airborne infection, understanding that this is very much not where science is at the moment, and he conducts a really interesting experiment in one of his classrooms to try to move the theory forward. We'll talk more about that experiment when we come back after the break.MidrollCarol Sutton Lewis: Welcome back to Lost Women of Science Conversations. We left off as the Wellses were about to conduct an experiment to test their theories about airborne infections. Carl, can you tell us about that experiment?Carl Zimmer: Okay. it's 1934, It's a cold day. Students come in for a lecture from this terrible teacher, William Wells. The windows are closed. The doors are closed. It's a poorly ventilated room. About 20 minutes before the end of the class, he takes this weird device that's next to him, he plugs it into the wall, and then he just goes back and keeps lecturing.It's not clear whether he even told them what he was doing. But, he then takes this little pinch of sneezing powder. out of a jar and holds it in the sort of outflow from the fan inside the air centrifuge. So all of a sudden, poof, the sneezing powder just goes off into the air. You know, there are probably about a couple dozen students scattered around this lecture hall and after a while they start to sneeze. And in fact, people All the way in theback are sneezing too.So now Wells turns off his machine, puts in a new cylinder, turns it on, keeps talking. The thing is that they are actually sneezing out droplets into the air.And some of those droplets contain harmless bacteria from their mouths. And he harvests them from the air. He actually collects them in his centrifuge. And after a few days, he's got colonies of these bacteria, but only after he had released the sneezing powder, the one before that didn't have any.So, you have this demonstration that William Wells could catch germs in the air that had been released from his students at quite a distance away, And other people can inhale them, and not even realize what's happening. In other words, germs were spreading like smoke. And so this becomes an explanation for what Mildred had been seeing in her epidemiology..Carol Sutton Lewis: Wow. That was pretty revolutionary. But how was it received?Carl Zimmer: Well, you know, At first it was received, With great fanfare, and he starts publishing papers in nineteen thirty he and Mildred are coauthors on these. And, Mildred is actually appointed as a research associate at Harvard, in nineteen thirty it's a nice title, but she doesn't get paid anything. And then William makes another discovery, which is also very important.He's thinking okay, if these things are floating in the air, is there a way that I can disinfect the air? And he tries all sorts of things and he discovers ultraviolet light works really well. In fact, you can just put an ultraviolet light in a room and the droplets will circulate around and as they pass through the ultraviolet rays, it kills the bacteria or viruses inside of them. So in 1936, when he's publishing these results, there are so many headlines in newspapers and magazines and stuff about this discovery.There's one headline that says, scientists fight flu germs with violet ray. And, there are these predictions that, we are going to be safe from these terrible diseases. Like for example, influenza, which had just, devastated the world not long beforehand, because you're going to put ultraviolet lights in trains and schools and trolleys and movie theaters.Carol Sutton Lewis: Did Mildred get any public recognition for her contributions to all of this?Carl Zimmer: Well not surprisingly, William gets the lion's share of the attention. I mean, there's a passing reference to Mildred in one article. The Associated Press says chief among his aides, Wells said, was his wife, Dr. Mildred Wells. So, William was perfectly comfortable, acknowledging her, but the reporters. Didn't care,Carol Sutton Lewis: And there were no pictures of herCarl Zimmer: Right. Mildred wasn't the engineer in that couple, but she was doing all the research on epidemiology. And you can tell from comments that people made about, and Mildred Wells is that. William would be nowhere as a scientist without Mildred. She was the one who kept him from jumping ahead to wild conclusions from the data he had so far. So they were, they're very much a team. She was doing the writing and they were collaborating, they were arguing with each other all the time about it And she was a much better writer than he was., but that wasn't suitable for a picture, so she was invisible.Carol Sutton Lewis: In the book, you write a lot about their difficult personalities and how that impacted their reputations within the wider scientific community. Can you say more about that?Carl Zimmer: Right. They really had a reputation as being really hard to deal with. People would politely call them peculiar. And when they weren't being quite so polite, they would talk about all these arguments that they would get in, shouting matches and so on. They really felt that they had discovered something incredibly important, but they were outsiders, you know, they didn't have PhDs, they didn't have really much formal training. And here they were saying that, you know, the consensus about infectious disease is profoundly wrong.Now, ironically, what happened is that once William Wells showed that ultraviolet light could kill germs, his superior at Harvard abruptly took an intense interest in all of this and said, Okay, you're going to share a patent on this with me. My name's going to be on the patent and all the research from now on is going to happen in my lab. I'm going to have complete control over what happens next. And Mildred took the lead saying no way we want total autonomy, get out of our face. She was much more aggressive in university politics, and sort of protecting their turf. And unfortunately they didn't have many allies at Harvard and pretty soon they were out, they were fired. And William Wells and his boss, Gordon Fair, were both named on a patent that was filed for using ultraviolet lamps to disinfect the air.Carol Sutton Lewis: So what happened when they left Harvard?Carl Zimmer: Well, it's really interesting watching them scrambling to find work, because their reputation had preceded them. They were hoping they could go back to Washington DC to the public health service. But, the story about the Wells was that Mildred, was carrying out a lot of the research, and so they thought, we can't hire William if it's his wife, who's quietly doing a lot of the work, like they, for some reason they didn't think, oh, we could hire them both.Carol Sutton Lewis: Or just her.Carl Zimmer: None of that, they were like, do we hire William Wells? His wife apparently hauls a lot of the weight. So no, we won't hire them. It's literally like written down. It’s, I'm not making it up. And fortunately they had a few defenders, a few champions down in Philadelphia.There was a doctor in Philadelphia who was using ultraviolet light to protect children in hospitals. And he was, really, inspired by the Wellses and he knew they were trouble. He wrote yes, I get it. They're difficult, but let's try to get them here.And so they brought them down to Philadelphia and Mildred. And William, opened up the laboratories for airborne infection at the University of Pennsylvania. And now actually Mildred got paid, for the first time, for this work. So they're both getting paid, things are starting to look betterCarol Sutton Lewis: So they start to do amazing work at the University of Pennsylvania.Carl Zimmer: That's right. That's right. William, takes the next step in proving their theory. He figures out how to actually give animals diseases through the air. He builds a machine that gets to be known as the infection machine. a big bell jar, and you can put mice in there, or a rabbit in there, and there's a tube connected to it.And through that tube, William can create a very fine mist that might have influenza viruses in it, or the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. And the animals just sit there and breathe, and lo and behold, They get tuberculosis, they get influenza, they get all these diseases,Now, meanwhile, Mildred is actually spending a lot of her time at a school nearby the Germantown Friends School, where they have installed ultraviolet lamps in some of the classrooms. And they're convinced that they can protect kids from airborne diseases. The biggest demonstration of what these lamps can do comes in 1940, because there's a huge epidemic of measles. In 1940, there's, no vaccine for measles. Every kid basically gets it.And lo and behold, the kids in the classrooms with the ultraviolet lamps are 10 times less likely to get measles than the kids just down the hall in the regular classrooms. And so this is one of the best experiments ever done on the nature of airborne infection and how you can protect people by disinfecting the air.Carol Sutton Lewis: Were they then finally accepted into the scientific community?Carl Zimmer: I know you keep waiting for that, that victory lap, but no. It's just like time and again, that glory gets snatched away from them. Again, this was not anything that was done in secret. Newspapers around Philadelphia were. Celebrating this wow, look at this, look at how we can protect our children from disease. This is fantastic. But other experts, public health authorities just were not budging. they had all taken in this dogma that the air can't be dangerous.And so again and again, they were hitting a brick wall. This is right on the eve of World War II.And so all sorts of scientists in World War II are asking themselves, what can we do? Mildred and William put themselves forward and say we don't want soldiers to get sick with the flu the way they did in World War I. They're both haunted by this and they're thinking, so we could put our ultraviolet lamps in the barracks, we could protect them. Soldiers from the flu, if the flu is airborne, like we think, not only that, but this could help to really convince all those skepticsCarol Sutton Lewis: mm.Carl Zimmer: But they failed. The army put all their money into other experiments, they were blackballed, they were shut out, and again, I think it was just because they were continuing to be just incredibly difficult. Even patrons and their friends would just sigh to each other, like, Oh my God, I've just had to deal with these, with them arguing with us and yelling at us. And by the end of World War II, things are bad, they have some sort of split up, they never get divorced, but it's just too much. Mildred, like she is not only trying to do this pioneering work in these schools, trying to keep William's labs organized, there's the matter of their son. Now looking at some documents, I would hazard a guess that he had schizophrenia because he was examined by a doctor who came to that conclusion.And so, she's under incredible pressure and eventually she cracks and in 1944 she resigns from the lab. She stops working in the schools, she stops collaborating with her husband, but she keeps doing her own science. And that's really amazing to me. What kinds of things did she do after this breakup? What kind of work did she conduct? And how was that received?Mildred goes on on her own to carry out a gigantic experiment, in hindsight, a really visionary piece of work. It's based on her experience in Philadelphia. Because she could see that the ultraviolet lamps worked very well at protecting children during a really intense measles epidemic. And so she thought to herself, if you want to really make ultraviolet light, and the theory of airborne infection live up to its true potential to protect people. You need to protect the air in a lot more places.So she gets introduced to the health commissioner in Westchester County, this is a county just north of New York City. And she pitches him this idea. She says, I want to go into one of your towns and I want to put ultraviolet lights everywhere. And this guy, William Holla, he is a very bold, flamboyant guy. He's the right guy to ask. He's like, yeah, let's do this. And he leaves it up to her to design the experiment.And so this town Pleasantville in New York gets fitted out with ultraviolet lamps in the train station, in the fountain shops, in the movie theater, in churches, all over the place. And she publishes a paper with Holla in 1950 on the results.The results are mixed though. You look carefully at them, you can see that actually, yeah, the lamps worked in certain respects. So certain diseases, the rates were lower in certain places, but sadly, this incredibly ambitious study really didn't move the needle. And yeah, it was a big disappointment and that was the last science that Mildred did.Carol Sutton Lewis: Even when they were working together, Mildred and William never really succeeded in convincing the scientific community to take airborne infection seriously, although their work obviously did move the science forward. So what did sway scientific opinion and when?Carl Zimmer: Yeah, Mildred dies in 1957. William dies in 1963. After the Wellses are dead, their work is dismissed and they themselves are quite forgotten. It really isn't until the early 2000s that a few people rediscover them.The SARS epidemic kicks up in 2003, for example, and I talked to a scientist in Hong Kong named Yuguo Li, and he was trying to understand how was this new disease spreading around? He's looking around and he finds references to papers by William Wells and Mildred Wells. He has no idea who they are and he sees that William Wells had published a book in 1955 and he's like, well, okay, maybe I need to go read the book.Nobody has the book. And the only place that he could find it was in one university in the United States. They photocopied it and shipped it to him in Hong Kong and he finally starts reading it. And it's really hard to read because again William was a terrible writer, unlike Mildred. But after a while it clicks and he's like, oh. That's it. I got it. But again, all the guidelines for controlling pandemics and diseases do not really give much serious attention to airborne infection except for just a couple diseases. And it's not until the COVID pandemic that things finally change.Carol Sutton Lewis: Wow. If we had listened to Mildred and William earlier, what might have been different?Carl Zimmer: Yeah, I do try to imagine a world in which Mildred and William had been taken seriously by more people. If airborne infection was just a seriously recognized thing at the start of the COVID pandemic, we would have been controlling the disease differently from the start. We wouldn't have been wiping down our shopping bags obsessively. People would have been encouraged to open the windows, people would have been encouraged to get air purifiers, ultraviolet lamps might have been installed in places with poor ventilation, masks might not have been so controversial.And instead these intellectual grandchildren of William and Mildred Wells had to reinvent the wheel. They had to do new studies to persuade people finally that a disease could be airborne. And it took a long time. It took months to finally move the needle.Carol Sutton Lewis: Carl, what do you hope people will take away from Mildred's story, which you have so wonderfully detailed in your book, rendering her no longer a lost woman of science? And what do you hope people will take away from the book more broadly?Carl Zimmer: I think sometimes that we imagine that science just marches on smoothly and effortlessly. But science is a human endeavor in all the good ways and in all the not-so-good ways. Science does have a fair amount of tragedy throughout it, as any human endeavor does. I'm sad about what happened to the Wells by the end of their lives, both of them. But in some ways, things are better now.When I'm writing about aerobiology in the early, mid, even late—except for Mildred, it's pretty much all men. But who were the people during the COVID pandemic who led the fight to get recognized as airborne? People like Linsey Marr at Virginia Tech, Kim Prather at University of California, San Diego, Lidia Morawska, an Australian researcher. Now, all women in science still have to contend with all sorts of sexism and sort of baked-in inequalities. But it is striking to me that when you get to the end of the book, the women show up.Carol Sutton Lewis: Well,Carl Zimmer: And they show up in force.Carol Sutton Lewis: And on that very positive note to end on, Carl, thank you so much, first and foremost, for writing this really fascinating book and within it, highlighting a now no longer lost woman of science, Mildred Weeks Wells. Your book is Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, and it's been a pleasure to speak with—Carl Zimmer: Thanks a lot. I really enjoyed talking about Mildred.Carol Sutton Lewis: This has been Lost Women of Science Conversations. Carl Zimmer's book Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe is out now. This episode was hosted by me, Carol Sutton Lewis. Our producer was Luca Evans, and Hansdale Hsu was our sound engineer. Special thanks to our senior managing producer, Deborah Unger, our program manager, Eowyn Burtner, and our co-executive producers, Katie Hafner and Amy Scharf.Thanks also to Jeff DelViscio and our publishing partner, Scientific American. The episode art was created by Lily Whear and Lizzie Younan composes our music. Lost Women of Science is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Anne Wojcicki Foundation. We're distributed by PRX.If you've enjoyed this conversation, go to our website lostwomenofscience.org and subscribe so you'll never miss an episode—that's lostwomenofscience.org. And please share it and give us a rating wherever you listen to podcasts. Oh, and please don't forget to click on the donate button—that helps us bring you even more stories of important female scientists.I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. See you next time.HostCarol Sutton LewisProducerLuca EvansGuest Carl ZimmerCarl Zimmer writes the Origins column for the New York Times and has frequently contributed to The Atlantic, National Geographic, Time, and Scientific American. His journalism has earned numerous awards, including ones from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering. He is the author of fourteen books about science, including Life's Edge.Further Reading:Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. Carl Zimmer. Dutton, 2025Poliomyelitis. International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis. Williams & Wilkins Company, 1932 “Air-borne Infection,” by William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 107, No. 21; November 21, 1936“Air-borne Infection: Sanitary Control,” by William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 107, No. 22; November 28, 1936“Ventilation in the Spread of Chickenpox and Measles within School Rooms,” by Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 129, No. 3; September 15, 1945“The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill,” by Megan Molteni, in Wired. Published online May 13, 2021WATCH THIS NEXTScience journalist Carl Zimmer joins host Rachel Feltman to look back at the history of the field, from ancient Greek “miasmas” to Louis Pasteur’s unorthodox experiments to biological warfare.
    #public #health #researcher #her #engineer
    A Public Health Researcher and Her Engineer Husband Found How Diseases Can Spread through Air Decades before the COVID Pandemic
    May 21, 202522 min readMildred Weeks Wells’s Work on Airborne Transmission Could Have Saved Many Lives—If the Scientific Establishment ListenedMildred Weeks Wells and her husband figured out that disease-causing pathogens can spread through the air like smoke Dutton; Lily WhearAir-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer, charts the history of the field of aerobiology: the science of airborne microorganisms. In this episode, we discover the story of two lost pioneers of the 1930s: physician and self-taught epidemiologist Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, sanitary engineer William Firth Wells. Together, they proved that infectious pathogens could spread through the air over long distances. But the two had a reputation as outsiders, and they failed to convince the scientific establishment, who ignored their findings for decades. What the pair figured out could have saved many lives from tuberculosis, SARS, COVID and other airborne diseases. The contributions of Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband were all but erased from history—until now.LISTEN TO THE PODCASTOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.TRANSCRIPTCarl Zimmer: Mildred is hired in the late 1920s to put together everything that was known about polio. And she does this incredible study, where she basically looks for everything that she can find about how polio spreads.At the time, the idea that it could spread through the air was really looked at as being just an obsolete superstition. Public health experts would say, look, a patient's breath is basically harmless. But the epidemiology looks to her like these germs are airborne, and this goes totally against the consensus at the time.Carol Sutton Lewis: Hello, I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. Welcome to the latest episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, where we talk with authors and artists who've discovered and celebrated female scientists in books, poetry, film, and the visual arts.Today I'm joined by Carl Zimmer, an award-winning New York Times columnist and the author of 15 books about science. His latest book, Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, focuses on the last great biological frontier: the air. It presents the history of aerobiology, which is the science dealing with the occurrence, transportation, and effects of airborne microorganisms.The book chronicles the exploits of committed aerobiologists from the early pioneers through to the present day. Among these pioneers were Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, William Firth Wells.Airborne tells the story of how Mildred and William tried to sound the alarm about airborne infections, but for many reasons, their warnings went unheard.Welcome, Carl Zimmer. It's such a pleasure to have you with us to tell us all about this fascinating woman and her contributions to science.Can you please tell us about Mildred Weeks Wells—where and how she grew up and what led her to the field of aerobiology?Carl Zimmer: She was born in 1891, and she came from a very prominent Texas family—the Denton family. Her great-grandfather is actually whom the city of Denton, Texas is named after. Her grandfather was a surgeon for the Confederate Army in the Civil War, and he becomes the director of what was called then the State Lunatic Asylum.And he and the bookkeeper there, William Weeks, are both charged with embezzlement. It's a big scandal. The bookkeeper then marries Mildred's mother. Then, shortly after Mildred's born, her father disappears. Her mother basically abandons her with her grandmother. And she grows up with her sister and grandmother in Austin, Texas. A comfortable life, but obviously there's a lot of scandal hanging over them.She is clearly incredibly strong-willed. She goes to medical school at the University of Texas and graduates in 1915, one of three women in a class of 34. That is really something for a woman at that point—there were hardly any women with medical degrees in the United States, let alone someone in Texas.But she books out of there. She does not stick around. She heads in 1915 to Washington, D.C., and works at the Public Health Service in a lab called the Hygienic Laboratory. Basically, what they're doing is studying bacteria. You have to remember, this is the golden age of the germ theory of disease. People have been figuring out that particular bacteria or viruses cause particular diseases, and that knowledge is helping them fight those diseases.It's there in Washington at this time that she meets a man who will become her husband, William Firth Wells.Carol Sutton Lewis: Just a quick aside—because we at Lost Women of Science are always interested in how you discover the material in addition to what you've discovered. How were you able to piece together her story? What sources were you able to find? It seems like there wasn't a lot of information available.Carl Zimmer: Yeah, it was a tough process. There is little information that's really easy to get your hands on. I mean, there is no biography of Mildred Wells or her husband, William Firth Wells.At the Rockefeller archives, they had maybe 30 document boxes full of stuff that was just miraculously conserved there. There are also letters that she wrote to people that have been saved in various collections.But especially with her early years, it's really tough. You know, in all my work trying to dig down for every single scrap of information I could find of her, I have only found one photograph of her—and it's the photograph in her yearbook. That’s it.Carol Sutton Lewis: You talked about that photograph in the book, and I was struck by your description of it. You say that she's smiling, but the longer you look at her smile, the sadder it becomes. What do you think at that young age was the source of the sadness?Carl Zimmer: I think that Mildred grew up with a lot of trauma. She was not the sort of person to keep long journals or write long letters about these sorts of things. But when you've come across those clues in these brief little newspaper accounts, you can kind of read between the lines.There are reports in newspapers saying that Mildred's mother had come to Austin to pay a visit to Mildred because she had scarlet fever when she was 10, and then she goes away again. And when I look at her face in her yearbook, it doesn't surprise me that there is this cast of melancholy to it because you just think about what she had gone through just as a kid.Carol Sutton Lewis: Oh. Absolutely. And fast forward, she meets William and they marry. They have a son, and they start collaborating. How did that begin?Carl Zimmer: The collaboration takes a while. So William Wells is also working at the Public Health Service at the time. He is a few years older than Mildred and he has been trained at MIT as what was called then a sanitarian. In other words, he was going to take the germ theory of disease and was going to save people's lives.He was very clever. He could invent tests that a sanitarian could use, dip a little tube into a river and see whether the water was safe or not, things like that. He was particularly focused on keeping water clean of bacteria that could cause diseases like typhoid or cholera and he also, gets assigned by the government to study oysters because oysters, they sit in this water and they're filtering all day long. And you know, if there's bacteria in there, they're going to filter it and trap it in their tissues. And oysters are incredibly popular in the early nineteen hundreds and a shocking number of people are keeling over dying of typhoid because they're eating them raw. So William is very busy, figuring out ways to save the oyster industry. How do we purify oysters and things like that? They meet, they get married in 1917.In 1918 they have a child, William Jr. nicknamed Bud. But William is not around for the birth, because he is drafted into the army, and he goes off to serve. in World War I.Carol Sutton Lewis: So Mildred is at home with Bud and William's off at the war. But ultimately, Mildred returns to science. A few years later, where she is hired as a polio detective. Can you tell me a little bit about what the state of polio knowledge was at the time and what precisely a polio detective did?Carl Zimmer: It doesn't seem like polio really was a thing in the United States until the late 1800s. And then suddenly there's this mysterious disease that can strike children with no warning. These kids can't. walk, or suddenly these kids are dying. Not only are the symptoms completely terrifying to parents, but how it spreads is a complete mystery. And so Mildred, seems to have been hired at some point in the late 1920s To basically put together everything that was known about polio to help doctors to deal with their patients and to, you know, encourage future science to try to figure out what is this disease.You know, Mildred wasn't trained in epidemiology. So it's kind of remarkable that she taught herself. And she would turn out to be a really great epidemiologist. But, in any case, She gets hired by the International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis, that was the name then for polio. And she does this incredible study, where she basically looks for everything that she can find about how polio spreads. Case studies where, in a town, like this child got polio, then this child did, and did they have contact and what sort of contact, what season was it? What was the weather like? All these different factors.And one thing that's really important to bear in mind is that, at this time, the prevailing view was that diseases spread by water, by food, by sex, by close contact. Maybe like someone just coughs and sprays droplets on you, but otherwise it's these other routes.The idea that it could spread through the air was really looked at as being just obsolete superstition. for thousands of years, people talked about miasmas, somehow the air mysteriously became corrupted and that made people sick with different diseases. That was all thrown out in the late 1800s, early 1900s when germ theory really takes hold. And so public health experts would say, look, a patient's breath is basically harmless.Carol Sutton Lewis: But Mildred doesn't agree, does she?Carl Zimmer: Well, Mildred Wells is looking at all of this, data and she is starting to get an idea that maybe these public health experts have been too quick to dismiss the air. So when people are talking about droplet infections in the 1920s, they're basically just talking about, big droplets that someone might just sneeze in your face. But the epidemiology looks to her like these germs are airborne, are spreading long distances through the air.So Mildred is starting to make a distinction in her mind about what she calls airborne and droplet infections. So, and this is really the time that the Wellses collectively are thinking about airborne infection and it's Mildred is doing it. And William actually gives her credit for this later on.Carol Sutton Lewis: Right. and her results are published in a book about polio written entirely by female authors, which is quite unusual for the time.Carl Zimmer: Mm hmm. Right. The book is published in 1932, and the reception just tells you so much about what it was like to be a woman in science. The New England Journal of Medicine reviews the book, which is great. But, here's a line that they give, they say, it is interesting to note that this book is entirely the product of women in medicine and is the first book.So far as a reviewer knows. by a number of authors, all of whom are of the female sex. So it's this: Oh, look at this oddity. And basically, the virtue of that is that women are really thorough, I, guess. so it's a very detailed book. And the reviewer writes, no one is better fitted than a woman to collect data such as this book contains. So there's no okay, this is very useful.Carol Sutton Lewis: PatronizeCarl Zimmer: Yeah. Thank you very much. Reviewers were just skating over the conclusions that they were drawing, I guess because they were women. Yeah, pretty incredible.Carol Sutton Lewis: So she is the first to submit scientific proof about this potential for airborne transmission. And that was pretty much dismissed. It wasn't even actively dismissed.It was just, nah, these women, nothing's coming outta that, except William did pay attention. I believe he too had been thinking about airborne transmission for some time and then started seriously looking at Mildred's conclusion when he started teaching at Harvard.Carl Zimmer: Yeah. So, William gets a job as a low level instructor at Harvard. He's getting paid very little. Mildred has no income. He's teaching about hygiene and sanitation, but apparently he's a terrible teacher. But he is a clever, brilliant engineer and scientist; he very quickly develops an idea that probably originated in the work that Mildred had been doing on polio. that maybe diseases actually can spread long distances through the air. So there are large droplets that we might sneeze out and cough out and, and they go a short distance before gravity pulls them down. But physics dictates that below a certain size, droplets can resist gravity.This is something that's going totally against what all the, the really prominent public health figures are saying. William Wells doesn't care. He goes ahead and he starts to, invent a way to sample air for germs. Basically it's a centrifuge. You plug it in, the fan spins, it sucks in air, the air comes up inside a glass cylinder and then as it's spinning, if there are any droplets of particles or anything floating in the air, they get flung out to the sideS.And so afterwards you just pull out the glass which is coated with, food for microbes to grow on and you put it in a nice warm place. And If there's anything in the air, you'll be able to grow a colony and see it.Carol Sutton Lewis: Amazing.Carl Zimmer: It is amazing. This, this was a crucial inventionCarol Sutton Lewis: So we have William, who is with Mildred's help moving more towards the possibility of airborne infection, understanding that this is very much not where science is at the moment, and he conducts a really interesting experiment in one of his classrooms to try to move the theory forward. We'll talk more about that experiment when we come back after the break.MidrollCarol Sutton Lewis: Welcome back to Lost Women of Science Conversations. We left off as the Wellses were about to conduct an experiment to test their theories about airborne infections. Carl, can you tell us about that experiment?Carl Zimmer: Okay. it's 1934, It's a cold day. Students come in for a lecture from this terrible teacher, William Wells. The windows are closed. The doors are closed. It's a poorly ventilated room. About 20 minutes before the end of the class, he takes this weird device that's next to him, he plugs it into the wall, and then he just goes back and keeps lecturing.It's not clear whether he even told them what he was doing. But, he then takes this little pinch of sneezing powder. out of a jar and holds it in the sort of outflow from the fan inside the air centrifuge. So all of a sudden, poof, the sneezing powder just goes off into the air. You know, there are probably about a couple dozen students scattered around this lecture hall and after a while they start to sneeze. And in fact, people All the way in theback are sneezing too.So now Wells turns off his machine, puts in a new cylinder, turns it on, keeps talking. The thing is that they are actually sneezing out droplets into the air.And some of those droplets contain harmless bacteria from their mouths. And he harvests them from the air. He actually collects them in his centrifuge. And after a few days, he's got colonies of these bacteria, but only after he had released the sneezing powder, the one before that didn't have any.So, you have this demonstration that William Wells could catch germs in the air that had been released from his students at quite a distance away, And other people can inhale them, and not even realize what's happening. In other words, germs were spreading like smoke. And so this becomes an explanation for what Mildred had been seeing in her epidemiology..Carol Sutton Lewis: Wow. That was pretty revolutionary. But how was it received?Carl Zimmer: Well, you know, At first it was received, With great fanfare, and he starts publishing papers in nineteen thirty he and Mildred are coauthors on these. And, Mildred is actually appointed as a research associate at Harvard, in nineteen thirty it's a nice title, but she doesn't get paid anything. And then William makes another discovery, which is also very important.He's thinking okay, if these things are floating in the air, is there a way that I can disinfect the air? And he tries all sorts of things and he discovers ultraviolet light works really well. In fact, you can just put an ultraviolet light in a room and the droplets will circulate around and as they pass through the ultraviolet rays, it kills the bacteria or viruses inside of them. So in 1936, when he's publishing these results, there are so many headlines in newspapers and magazines and stuff about this discovery.There's one headline that says, scientists fight flu germs with violet ray. And, there are these predictions that, we are going to be safe from these terrible diseases. Like for example, influenza, which had just, devastated the world not long beforehand, because you're going to put ultraviolet lights in trains and schools and trolleys and movie theaters.Carol Sutton Lewis: Did Mildred get any public recognition for her contributions to all of this?Carl Zimmer: Well not surprisingly, William gets the lion's share of the attention. I mean, there's a passing reference to Mildred in one article. The Associated Press says chief among his aides, Wells said, was his wife, Dr. Mildred Wells. So, William was perfectly comfortable, acknowledging her, but the reporters. Didn't care,Carol Sutton Lewis: And there were no pictures of herCarl Zimmer: Right. Mildred wasn't the engineer in that couple, but she was doing all the research on epidemiology. And you can tell from comments that people made about, and Mildred Wells is that. William would be nowhere as a scientist without Mildred. She was the one who kept him from jumping ahead to wild conclusions from the data he had so far. So they were, they're very much a team. She was doing the writing and they were collaborating, they were arguing with each other all the time about it And she was a much better writer than he was., but that wasn't suitable for a picture, so she was invisible.Carol Sutton Lewis: In the book, you write a lot about their difficult personalities and how that impacted their reputations within the wider scientific community. Can you say more about that?Carl Zimmer: Right. They really had a reputation as being really hard to deal with. People would politely call them peculiar. And when they weren't being quite so polite, they would talk about all these arguments that they would get in, shouting matches and so on. They really felt that they had discovered something incredibly important, but they were outsiders, you know, they didn't have PhDs, they didn't have really much formal training. And here they were saying that, you know, the consensus about infectious disease is profoundly wrong.Now, ironically, what happened is that once William Wells showed that ultraviolet light could kill germs, his superior at Harvard abruptly took an intense interest in all of this and said, Okay, you're going to share a patent on this with me. My name's going to be on the patent and all the research from now on is going to happen in my lab. I'm going to have complete control over what happens next. And Mildred took the lead saying no way we want total autonomy, get out of our face. She was much more aggressive in university politics, and sort of protecting their turf. And unfortunately they didn't have many allies at Harvard and pretty soon they were out, they were fired. And William Wells and his boss, Gordon Fair, were both named on a patent that was filed for using ultraviolet lamps to disinfect the air.Carol Sutton Lewis: So what happened when they left Harvard?Carl Zimmer: Well, it's really interesting watching them scrambling to find work, because their reputation had preceded them. They were hoping they could go back to Washington DC to the public health service. But, the story about the Wells was that Mildred, was carrying out a lot of the research, and so they thought, we can't hire William if it's his wife, who's quietly doing a lot of the work, like they, for some reason they didn't think, oh, we could hire them both.Carol Sutton Lewis: Or just her.Carl Zimmer: None of that, they were like, do we hire William Wells? His wife apparently hauls a lot of the weight. So no, we won't hire them. It's literally like written down. It’s, I'm not making it up. And fortunately they had a few defenders, a few champions down in Philadelphia.There was a doctor in Philadelphia who was using ultraviolet light to protect children in hospitals. And he was, really, inspired by the Wellses and he knew they were trouble. He wrote yes, I get it. They're difficult, but let's try to get them here.And so they brought them down to Philadelphia and Mildred. And William, opened up the laboratories for airborne infection at the University of Pennsylvania. And now actually Mildred got paid, for the first time, for this work. So they're both getting paid, things are starting to look betterCarol Sutton Lewis: So they start to do amazing work at the University of Pennsylvania.Carl Zimmer: That's right. That's right. William, takes the next step in proving their theory. He figures out how to actually give animals diseases through the air. He builds a machine that gets to be known as the infection machine. a big bell jar, and you can put mice in there, or a rabbit in there, and there's a tube connected to it.And through that tube, William can create a very fine mist that might have influenza viruses in it, or the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. And the animals just sit there and breathe, and lo and behold, They get tuberculosis, they get influenza, they get all these diseases,Now, meanwhile, Mildred is actually spending a lot of her time at a school nearby the Germantown Friends School, where they have installed ultraviolet lamps in some of the classrooms. And they're convinced that they can protect kids from airborne diseases. The biggest demonstration of what these lamps can do comes in 1940, because there's a huge epidemic of measles. In 1940, there's, no vaccine for measles. Every kid basically gets it.And lo and behold, the kids in the classrooms with the ultraviolet lamps are 10 times less likely to get measles than the kids just down the hall in the regular classrooms. And so this is one of the best experiments ever done on the nature of airborne infection and how you can protect people by disinfecting the air.Carol Sutton Lewis: Were they then finally accepted into the scientific community?Carl Zimmer: I know you keep waiting for that, that victory lap, but no. It's just like time and again, that glory gets snatched away from them. Again, this was not anything that was done in secret. Newspapers around Philadelphia were. Celebrating this wow, look at this, look at how we can protect our children from disease. This is fantastic. But other experts, public health authorities just were not budging. they had all taken in this dogma that the air can't be dangerous.And so again and again, they were hitting a brick wall. This is right on the eve of World War II.And so all sorts of scientists in World War II are asking themselves, what can we do? Mildred and William put themselves forward and say we don't want soldiers to get sick with the flu the way they did in World War I. They're both haunted by this and they're thinking, so we could put our ultraviolet lamps in the barracks, we could protect them. Soldiers from the flu, if the flu is airborne, like we think, not only that, but this could help to really convince all those skepticsCarol Sutton Lewis: mm.Carl Zimmer: But they failed. The army put all their money into other experiments, they were blackballed, they were shut out, and again, I think it was just because they were continuing to be just incredibly difficult. Even patrons and their friends would just sigh to each other, like, Oh my God, I've just had to deal with these, with them arguing with us and yelling at us. And by the end of World War II, things are bad, they have some sort of split up, they never get divorced, but it's just too much. Mildred, like she is not only trying to do this pioneering work in these schools, trying to keep William's labs organized, there's the matter of their son. Now looking at some documents, I would hazard a guess that he had schizophrenia because he was examined by a doctor who came to that conclusion.And so, she's under incredible pressure and eventually she cracks and in 1944 she resigns from the lab. She stops working in the schools, she stops collaborating with her husband, but she keeps doing her own science. And that's really amazing to me. What kinds of things did she do after this breakup? What kind of work did she conduct? And how was that received?Mildred goes on on her own to carry out a gigantic experiment, in hindsight, a really visionary piece of work. It's based on her experience in Philadelphia. Because she could see that the ultraviolet lamps worked very well at protecting children during a really intense measles epidemic. And so she thought to herself, if you want to really make ultraviolet light, and the theory of airborne infection live up to its true potential to protect people. You need to protect the air in a lot more places.So she gets introduced to the health commissioner in Westchester County, this is a county just north of New York City. And she pitches him this idea. She says, I want to go into one of your towns and I want to put ultraviolet lights everywhere. And this guy, William Holla, he is a very bold, flamboyant guy. He's the right guy to ask. He's like, yeah, let's do this. And he leaves it up to her to design the experiment.And so this town Pleasantville in New York gets fitted out with ultraviolet lamps in the train station, in the fountain shops, in the movie theater, in churches, all over the place. And she publishes a paper with Holla in 1950 on the results.The results are mixed though. You look carefully at them, you can see that actually, yeah, the lamps worked in certain respects. So certain diseases, the rates were lower in certain places, but sadly, this incredibly ambitious study really didn't move the needle. And yeah, it was a big disappointment and that was the last science that Mildred did.Carol Sutton Lewis: Even when they were working together, Mildred and William never really succeeded in convincing the scientific community to take airborne infection seriously, although their work obviously did move the science forward. So what did sway scientific opinion and when?Carl Zimmer: Yeah, Mildred dies in 1957. William dies in 1963. After the Wellses are dead, their work is dismissed and they themselves are quite forgotten. It really isn't until the early 2000s that a few people rediscover them.The SARS epidemic kicks up in 2003, for example, and I talked to a scientist in Hong Kong named Yuguo Li, and he was trying to understand how was this new disease spreading around? He's looking around and he finds references to papers by William Wells and Mildred Wells. He has no idea who they are and he sees that William Wells had published a book in 1955 and he's like, well, okay, maybe I need to go read the book.Nobody has the book. And the only place that he could find it was in one university in the United States. They photocopied it and shipped it to him in Hong Kong and he finally starts reading it. And it's really hard to read because again William was a terrible writer, unlike Mildred. But after a while it clicks and he's like, oh. That's it. I got it. But again, all the guidelines for controlling pandemics and diseases do not really give much serious attention to airborne infection except for just a couple diseases. And it's not until the COVID pandemic that things finally change.Carol Sutton Lewis: Wow. If we had listened to Mildred and William earlier, what might have been different?Carl Zimmer: Yeah, I do try to imagine a world in which Mildred and William had been taken seriously by more people. If airborne infection was just a seriously recognized thing at the start of the COVID pandemic, we would have been controlling the disease differently from the start. We wouldn't have been wiping down our shopping bags obsessively. People would have been encouraged to open the windows, people would have been encouraged to get air purifiers, ultraviolet lamps might have been installed in places with poor ventilation, masks might not have been so controversial.And instead these intellectual grandchildren of William and Mildred Wells had to reinvent the wheel. They had to do new studies to persuade people finally that a disease could be airborne. And it took a long time. It took months to finally move the needle.Carol Sutton Lewis: Carl, what do you hope people will take away from Mildred's story, which you have so wonderfully detailed in your book, rendering her no longer a lost woman of science? And what do you hope people will take away from the book more broadly?Carl Zimmer: I think sometimes that we imagine that science just marches on smoothly and effortlessly. But science is a human endeavor in all the good ways and in all the not-so-good ways. Science does have a fair amount of tragedy throughout it, as any human endeavor does. I'm sad about what happened to the Wells by the end of their lives, both of them. But in some ways, things are better now.When I'm writing about aerobiology in the early, mid, even late—except for Mildred, it's pretty much all men. But who were the people during the COVID pandemic who led the fight to get recognized as airborne? People like Linsey Marr at Virginia Tech, Kim Prather at University of California, San Diego, Lidia Morawska, an Australian researcher. Now, all women in science still have to contend with all sorts of sexism and sort of baked-in inequalities. But it is striking to me that when you get to the end of the book, the women show up.Carol Sutton Lewis: Well,Carl Zimmer: And they show up in force.Carol Sutton Lewis: And on that very positive note to end on, Carl, thank you so much, first and foremost, for writing this really fascinating book and within it, highlighting a now no longer lost woman of science, Mildred Weeks Wells. Your book is Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, and it's been a pleasure to speak with—Carl Zimmer: Thanks a lot. I really enjoyed talking about Mildred.Carol Sutton Lewis: This has been Lost Women of Science Conversations. Carl Zimmer's book Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe is out now. This episode was hosted by me, Carol Sutton Lewis. Our producer was Luca Evans, and Hansdale Hsu was our sound engineer. Special thanks to our senior managing producer, Deborah Unger, our program manager, Eowyn Burtner, and our co-executive producers, Katie Hafner and Amy Scharf.Thanks also to Jeff DelViscio and our publishing partner, Scientific American. The episode art was created by Lily Whear and Lizzie Younan composes our music. Lost Women of Science is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Anne Wojcicki Foundation. We're distributed by PRX.If you've enjoyed this conversation, go to our website lostwomenofscience.org and subscribe so you'll never miss an episode—that's lostwomenofscience.org. And please share it and give us a rating wherever you listen to podcasts. Oh, and please don't forget to click on the donate button—that helps us bring you even more stories of important female scientists.I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. See you next time.HostCarol Sutton LewisProducerLuca EvansGuest Carl ZimmerCarl Zimmer writes the Origins column for the New York Times and has frequently contributed to The Atlantic, National Geographic, Time, and Scientific American. His journalism has earned numerous awards, including ones from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering. He is the author of fourteen books about science, including Life's Edge.Further Reading:Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. Carl Zimmer. Dutton, 2025Poliomyelitis. International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis. Williams & Wilkins Company, 1932 “Air-borne Infection,” by William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 107, No. 21; November 21, 1936“Air-borne Infection: Sanitary Control,” by William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 107, No. 22; November 28, 1936“Ventilation in the Spread of Chickenpox and Measles within School Rooms,” by Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 129, No. 3; September 15, 1945“The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill,” by Megan Molteni, in Wired. Published online May 13, 2021WATCH THIS NEXTScience journalist Carl Zimmer joins host Rachel Feltman to look back at the history of the field, from ancient Greek “miasmas” to Louis Pasteur’s unorthodox experiments to biological warfare. #public #health #researcher #her #engineer
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    A Public Health Researcher and Her Engineer Husband Found How Diseases Can Spread through Air Decades before the COVID Pandemic
    May 21, 202522 min readMildred Weeks Wells’s Work on Airborne Transmission Could Have Saved Many Lives—If the Scientific Establishment ListenedMildred Weeks Wells and her husband figured out that disease-causing pathogens can spread through the air like smoke Dutton (image); Lily Whear (composite)Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer, charts the history of the field of aerobiology: the science of airborne microorganisms. In this episode, we discover the story of two lost pioneers of the 1930s: physician and self-taught epidemiologist Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, sanitary engineer William Firth Wells. Together, they proved that infectious pathogens could spread through the air over long distances. But the two had a reputation as outsiders, and they failed to convince the scientific establishment, who ignored their findings for decades. What the pair figured out could have saved many lives from tuberculosis, SARS, COVID and other airborne diseases. The contributions of Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband were all but erased from history—until now.LISTEN TO THE PODCASTOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.TRANSCRIPTCarl Zimmer: Mildred is hired in the late 1920s to put together everything that was known about polio. And she does this incredible study, where she basically looks for everything that she can find about how polio spreads.At the time, the idea that it could spread through the air was really looked at as being just an obsolete superstition. Public health experts would say, look, a patient's breath is basically harmless. But the epidemiology looks to her like these germs are airborne, and this goes totally against the consensus at the time.Carol Sutton Lewis: Hello, I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. Welcome to the latest episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, where we talk with authors and artists who've discovered and celebrated female scientists in books, poetry, film, and the visual arts.Today I'm joined by Carl Zimmer, an award-winning New York Times columnist and the author of 15 books about science. His latest book, Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, focuses on the last great biological frontier: the air. It presents the history of aerobiology, which is the science dealing with the occurrence, transportation, and effects of airborne microorganisms.The book chronicles the exploits of committed aerobiologists from the early pioneers through to the present day. Among these pioneers were Mildred Weeks Wells and her husband, William Firth Wells.Airborne tells the story of how Mildred and William tried to sound the alarm about airborne infections, but for many reasons, their warnings went unheard.Welcome, Carl Zimmer. It's such a pleasure to have you with us to tell us all about this fascinating woman and her contributions to science.Can you please tell us about Mildred Weeks Wells—where and how she grew up and what led her to the field of aerobiology?Carl Zimmer: She was born in 1891, and she came from a very prominent Texas family—the Denton family. Her great-grandfather is actually whom the city of Denton, Texas is named after. Her grandfather was a surgeon for the Confederate Army in the Civil War, and he becomes the director of what was called then the State Lunatic Asylum.And he and the bookkeeper there, William Weeks, are both charged with embezzlement. It's a big scandal. The bookkeeper then marries Mildred's mother. Then, shortly after Mildred's born, her father disappears. Her mother basically abandons her with her grandmother. And she grows up with her sister and grandmother in Austin, Texas. A comfortable life, but obviously there's a lot of scandal hanging over them.She is clearly incredibly strong-willed. She goes to medical school at the University of Texas and graduates in 1915, one of three women in a class of 34. That is really something for a woman at that point—there were hardly any women with medical degrees in the United States, let alone someone in Texas.But she books out of there. She does not stick around. She heads in 1915 to Washington, D.C., and works at the Public Health Service in a lab called the Hygienic Laboratory. Basically, what they're doing is studying bacteria. You have to remember, this is the golden age of the germ theory of disease. People have been figuring out that particular bacteria or viruses cause particular diseases, and that knowledge is helping them fight those diseases.It's there in Washington at this time that she meets a man who will become her husband, William Firth Wells.Carol Sutton Lewis: Just a quick aside—because we at Lost Women of Science are always interested in how you discover the material in addition to what you've discovered. How were you able to piece together her story? What sources were you able to find? It seems like there wasn't a lot of information available.Carl Zimmer: Yeah, it was a tough process. There is little information that's really easy to get your hands on. I mean, there is no biography of Mildred Wells or her husband, William Firth Wells.At the Rockefeller archives, they had maybe 30 document boxes full of stuff that was just miraculously conserved there. There are also letters that she wrote to people that have been saved in various collections.But especially with her early years, it's really tough. You know, in all my work trying to dig down for every single scrap of information I could find of her, I have only found one photograph of her—and it's the photograph in her yearbook. That’s it.Carol Sutton Lewis: You talked about that photograph in the book, and I was struck by your description of it. You say that she's smiling, but the longer you look at her smile, the sadder it becomes. What do you think at that young age was the source of the sadness?Carl Zimmer: I think that Mildred grew up with a lot of trauma. She was not the sort of person to keep long journals or write long letters about these sorts of things. But when you've come across those clues in these brief little newspaper accounts, you can kind of read between the lines.There are reports in newspapers saying that Mildred's mother had come to Austin to pay a visit to Mildred because she had scarlet fever when she was 10, and then she goes away again. And when I look at her face in her yearbook, it doesn't surprise me that there is this cast of melancholy to it because you just think about what she had gone through just as a kid.Carol Sutton Lewis: Oh. Absolutely. And fast forward, she meets William and they marry. They have a son, and they start collaborating. How did that begin?Carl Zimmer: The collaboration takes a while. So William Wells is also working at the Public Health Service at the time. He is a few years older than Mildred and he has been trained at MIT as what was called then a sanitarian. In other words, he was going to take the germ theory of disease and was going to save people's lives.He was very clever. He could invent tests that a sanitarian could use, dip a little tube into a river and see whether the water was safe or not, things like that. He was particularly focused on keeping water clean of bacteria that could cause diseases like typhoid or cholera and he also, gets assigned by the government to study oysters because oysters, they sit in this water and they're filtering all day long. And you know, if there's bacteria in there, they're going to filter it and trap it in their tissues. And oysters are incredibly popular in the early nineteen hundreds and a shocking number of people are keeling over dying of typhoid because they're eating them raw. So William is very busy, figuring out ways to save the oyster industry. How do we purify oysters and things like that? They meet, they get married in 1917.In 1918 they have a child, William Jr. nicknamed Bud. But William is not around for the birth, because he is drafted into the army, and he goes off to serve. in World War I.Carol Sutton Lewis: So Mildred is at home with Bud and William's off at the war. But ultimately, Mildred returns to science. A few years later, where she is hired as a polio detective. Can you tell me a little bit about what the state of polio knowledge was at the time and what precisely a polio detective did?Carl Zimmer: It doesn't seem like polio really was a thing in the United States until the late 1800s. And then suddenly there's this mysterious disease that can strike children with no warning. These kids can't. walk, or suddenly these kids are dying. Not only are the symptoms completely terrifying to parents, but how it spreads is a complete mystery. And so Mildred, seems to have been hired at some point in the late 1920s To basically put together everything that was known about polio to help doctors to deal with their patients and to, you know, encourage future science to try to figure out what is this disease.You know, Mildred wasn't trained in epidemiology. So it's kind of remarkable that she taught herself. And she would turn out to be a really great epidemiologist. But, in any case, She gets hired by the International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis, that was the name then for polio. And she does this incredible study, where she basically looks for everything that she can find about how polio spreads. Case studies where, in a town, like this child got polio, then this child did, and did they have contact and what sort of contact, what season was it? What was the weather like? All these different factors.And one thing that's really important to bear in mind is that, at this time, the prevailing view was that diseases spread by water, by food, by sex, by close contact. Maybe like someone just coughs and sprays droplets on you, but otherwise it's these other routes.The idea that it could spread through the air was really looked at as being just obsolete superstition. for thousands of years, people talked about miasmas, somehow the air mysteriously became corrupted and that made people sick with different diseases. That was all thrown out in the late 1800s, early 1900s when germ theory really takes hold. And so public health experts would say, look, a patient's breath is basically harmless.Carol Sutton Lewis: But Mildred doesn't agree, does she?Carl Zimmer: Well, Mildred Wells is looking at all of this, data and she is starting to get an idea that maybe these public health experts have been too quick to dismiss the air. So when people are talking about droplet infections in the 1920s, they're basically just talking about, big droplets that someone might just sneeze in your face. But the epidemiology looks to her like these germs are airborne, are spreading long distances through the air.So Mildred is starting to make a distinction in her mind about what she calls airborne and droplet infections. So, and this is really the time that the Wellses collectively are thinking about airborne infection and it's Mildred is doing it. And William actually gives her credit for this later on.Carol Sutton Lewis: Right. and her results are published in a book about polio written entirely by female authors, which is quite unusual for the time.Carl Zimmer: Mm hmm. Right. The book is published in 1932, and the reception just tells you so much about what it was like to be a woman in science. The New England Journal of Medicine reviews the book, which is great. But, here's a line that they give, they say, it is interesting to note that this book is entirely the product of women in medicine and is the first book.So far as a reviewer knows. by a number of authors, all of whom are of the female sex. So it's this: Oh, look at this oddity. And basically, the virtue of that is that women are really thorough, I, guess. so it's a very detailed book. And the reviewer writes, no one is better fitted than a woman to collect data such as this book contains. So there's no okay, this is very useful.Carol Sutton Lewis: PatronizeCarl Zimmer: Yeah. Thank you very much. Reviewers were just skating over the conclusions that they were drawing, I guess because they were women. Yeah, pretty incredible.Carol Sutton Lewis: So she is the first to submit scientific proof about this potential for airborne transmission. And that was pretty much dismissed. It wasn't even actively dismissed.It was just, nah, these women, nothing's coming outta that, except William did pay attention. I believe he too had been thinking about airborne transmission for some time and then started seriously looking at Mildred's conclusion when he started teaching at Harvard.Carl Zimmer: Yeah. So, William gets a job as a low level instructor at Harvard. He's getting paid very little. Mildred has no income. He's teaching about hygiene and sanitation, but apparently he's a terrible teacher. But he is a clever, brilliant engineer and scientist; he very quickly develops an idea that probably originated in the work that Mildred had been doing on polio. that maybe diseases actually can spread long distances through the air. So there are large droplets that we might sneeze out and cough out and, and they go a short distance before gravity pulls them down. But physics dictates that below a certain size, droplets can resist gravity.This is something that's going totally against what all the, the really prominent public health figures are saying. William Wells doesn't care. He goes ahead and he starts to, invent a way to sample air for germs. Basically it's a centrifuge. You plug it in, the fan spins, it sucks in air, the air comes up inside a glass cylinder and then as it's spinning, if there are any droplets of particles or anything floating in the air, they get flung out to the sideS.And so afterwards you just pull out the glass which is coated with, food for microbes to grow on and you put it in a nice warm place. And If there's anything in the air, you'll be able to grow a colony and see it.Carol Sutton Lewis: Amazing.Carl Zimmer: It is amazing. This, this was a crucial inventionCarol Sutton Lewis: So we have William, who is with Mildred's help moving more towards the possibility of airborne infection, understanding that this is very much not where science is at the moment, and he conducts a really interesting experiment in one of his classrooms to try to move the theory forward. We'll talk more about that experiment when we come back after the break.MidrollCarol Sutton Lewis: Welcome back to Lost Women of Science Conversations. We left off as the Wellses were about to conduct an experiment to test their theories about airborne infections. Carl, can you tell us about that experiment?Carl Zimmer: Okay. it's 1934, It's a cold day. Students come in for a lecture from this terrible teacher, William Wells. The windows are closed. The doors are closed. It's a poorly ventilated room. About 20 minutes before the end of the class, he takes this weird device that's next to him, he plugs it into the wall, and then he just goes back and keeps lecturing.It's not clear whether he even told them what he was doing. But, he then takes this little pinch of sneezing powder. out of a jar and holds it in the sort of outflow from the fan inside the air centrifuge. So all of a sudden, poof, the sneezing powder just goes off into the air. You know, there are probably about a couple dozen students scattered around this lecture hall and after a while they start to sneeze. And in fact, people All the way in the [00:16:00] back are sneezing too.So now Wells turns off his machine, puts in a new cylinder, turns it on, keeps talking. The thing is that they are actually sneezing out droplets into the air.And some of those droplets contain harmless bacteria from their mouths. And he harvests them from the air. He actually collects them in his centrifuge. And after a few days, he's got colonies of these bacteria, but only after he had released the sneezing powder, the one before that didn't have any.So, you have this demonstration that William Wells could catch germs in the air that had been released from his students at quite a distance away, And other people can inhale them, and not even realize what's happening. In other words, germs were spreading like smoke. And so this becomes an explanation for what Mildred had been seeing in her epidemiology..Carol Sutton Lewis: Wow. That was pretty revolutionary. But how was it received?Carl Zimmer: Well, you know, At first it was received, With great fanfare, and he starts publishing papers in nineteen thirty he and Mildred are coauthors on these. And, Mildred is actually appointed as a research associate at Harvard, in nineteen thirty it's a nice title, but she doesn't get paid anything. And then William makes another discovery, which is also very important.He's thinking okay, if these things are floating in the air, is there a way that I can disinfect the air? And he tries all sorts of things and he discovers ultraviolet light works really well. In fact, you can just put an ultraviolet light in a room and the droplets will circulate around and as they pass through the ultraviolet rays, it kills the bacteria or viruses inside of them. So in 1936, when he's publishing these results, there are so many headlines in newspapers and magazines and stuff about this discovery.There's one headline that says, scientists fight flu germs with violet ray. And, there are these predictions that, we are going to be safe from these terrible diseases. Like for example, influenza, which had just, devastated the world not long beforehand, because you're going to put ultraviolet lights in trains and schools and trolleys and movie theaters.Carol Sutton Lewis: Did Mildred get any public recognition for her contributions to all of this?Carl Zimmer: Well not surprisingly, William gets the lion's share of the attention. I mean, there's a passing reference to Mildred in one article. The Associated Press says chief among his aides, Wells said, was his wife, Dr. Mildred Wells. So, William was perfectly comfortable, acknowledging her, but the reporters. Didn't care,Carol Sutton Lewis: And there were no pictures of herCarl Zimmer: Right. Mildred wasn't the engineer in that couple, but she was doing all the research on epidemiology. And you can tell from comments that people made about, and Mildred Wells is that. William would be nowhere as a scientist without Mildred. She was the one who kept him from jumping ahead to wild conclusions from the data he had so far. So they were, they're very much a team. She was doing the writing and they were collaborating, they were arguing with each other all the time about it And she was a much better writer than he was., but that wasn't suitable for a picture, so she was invisible.Carol Sutton Lewis: In the book, you write a lot about their difficult personalities and how that impacted their reputations within the wider scientific community. Can you say more about that?Carl Zimmer: Right. They really had a reputation as being really hard to deal with. People would politely call them peculiar. And when they weren't being quite so polite, they would talk about all these arguments that they would get in, shouting matches and so on. They really felt that they had discovered something incredibly important, but they were outsiders, you know, they didn't have PhDs, they didn't have really much formal training. And here they were saying that, you know, the consensus about infectious disease is profoundly wrong.Now, ironically, what happened is that once William Wells showed that ultraviolet light could kill germs, his superior at Harvard abruptly took an intense interest in all of this and said, Okay, you're going to share a patent on this with me. My name's going to be on the patent and all the research from now on is going to happen in my lab. I'm going to have complete control over what happens next. And Mildred took the lead saying no way we want total autonomy, get out of our face. She was much more aggressive in university politics, and sort of protecting their turf. And unfortunately they didn't have many allies at Harvard and pretty soon they were out, they were fired. And William Wells and his boss, Gordon Fair, were both named on a patent that was filed for using ultraviolet lamps to disinfect the air.Carol Sutton Lewis: So what happened when they left Harvard?Carl Zimmer: Well, it's really interesting watching them scrambling to find work, because their reputation had preceded them. They were hoping they could go back to Washington DC to the public health service. But, the story about the Wells was that Mildred, was carrying out a lot of the research, and so they thought, we can't hire William if it's his wife, who's quietly doing a lot of the work, like they, for some reason they didn't think, oh, we could hire them both.Carol Sutton Lewis: Or just her.Carl Zimmer: None of that, they were like, do we hire William Wells? His wife apparently hauls a lot of the weight. So no, we won't hire them. It's literally like written down. It’s, I'm not making it up. And fortunately they had a few defenders, a few champions down in Philadelphia.There was a doctor in Philadelphia who was using ultraviolet light to protect children in hospitals. And he was, really, inspired by the Wellses and he knew they were trouble. He wrote yes, I get it. They're difficult, but let's try to get them here.And so they brought them down to Philadelphia and Mildred. And William, opened up the laboratories for airborne infection at the University of Pennsylvania. And now actually Mildred got paid, for the first time, for this work. So they're both getting paid, things are starting to look betterCarol Sutton Lewis: So they start to do amazing work at the University of Pennsylvania.Carl Zimmer: That's right. That's right. William, takes the next step in proving their theory. He figures out how to actually give animals diseases through the air. He builds a machine that gets to be known as the infection machine. a big bell jar, and you can put mice in there, or a rabbit in there, and there's a tube connected to it.And through that tube, William can create a very fine mist that might have influenza viruses in it, or the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. And the animals just sit there and breathe, and lo and behold, They get tuberculosis, they get influenza, they get all these diseases,Now, meanwhile, Mildred is actually spending a lot of her time at a school nearby the Germantown Friends School, where they have installed ultraviolet lamps in some of the classrooms. And they're convinced that they can protect kids from airborne diseases. The biggest demonstration of what these lamps can do comes in 1940, because there's a huge epidemic of measles. In 1940, there's, no vaccine for measles. Every kid basically gets it.And lo and behold, the kids in the classrooms with the ultraviolet lamps are 10 times less likely to get measles than the kids just down the hall in the regular classrooms. And so this is one of the best experiments ever done on the nature of airborne infection and how you can protect people by disinfecting the air.Carol Sutton Lewis: Were they then finally accepted into the scientific community?Carl Zimmer: I know you keep waiting for that, that victory lap, but no. It's just like time and again, that glory gets snatched away from them. Again, this was not anything that was done in secret. Newspapers around Philadelphia were. Celebrating this wow, look at this, look at how we can protect our children from disease. This is fantastic. But other experts, public health authorities just were not budging. they had all taken in this dogma that the air can't be dangerous.And so again and again, they were hitting a brick wall. This is right on the eve of World War II.And so all sorts of scientists in World War II are asking themselves, what can we do? Mildred and William put themselves forward and say we don't want soldiers to get sick with the flu the way they did in World War I. They're both haunted by this and they're thinking, so we could put our ultraviolet lamps in the barracks, we could protect them. Soldiers from the flu, if the flu is airborne, like we think, not only that, but this could help to really convince all those skepticsCarol Sutton Lewis: mm.Carl Zimmer: But they failed. The army put all their money into other experiments, they were blackballed, they were shut out, and again, I think it was just because they were continuing to be just incredibly difficult. Even patrons and their friends would just sigh to each other, like, Oh my God, I've just had to deal with these, with them arguing with us and yelling at us. And by the end of World War II, things are bad, they have some sort of split up, they never get divorced, but it's just too much. Mildred, like she is not only trying to do this pioneering work in these schools, trying to keep William's labs organized, there's the matter of their son. Now looking at some documents, I would hazard a guess that he had schizophrenia because he was examined by a doctor who came to that conclusion.And so, she's under incredible pressure and eventually she cracks and in 1944 she resigns from the lab. She stops working in the schools, she stops collaborating with her husband, but she keeps doing her own science. And that's really amazing to me. What kinds of things did she do after this breakup? What kind of work did she conduct? And how was that received?Mildred goes on on her own to carry out a gigantic experiment, in hindsight, a really visionary piece of work. It's based on her experience in Philadelphia. Because she could see that the ultraviolet lamps worked very well at protecting children during a really intense measles epidemic. And so she thought to herself, if you want to really make ultraviolet light, and the theory of airborne infection live up to its true potential to protect people. You need to protect the air in a lot more places.So she gets introduced to the health commissioner in Westchester County, this is a county just north of New York City. And she pitches him this idea. She says, I want to go into one of your towns and I want to put ultraviolet lights everywhere. And this guy, William Holla, he is a very bold, flamboyant guy. He's the right guy to ask. He's like, yeah, let's do this. And he leaves it up to her to design the experiment.And so this town Pleasantville in New York gets fitted out with ultraviolet lamps in the train station, in the fountain shops, in the movie theater, in churches, all over the place. And she publishes a paper with Holla in 1950 on the results.The results are mixed though. You look carefully at them, you can see that actually, yeah, the lamps worked in certain respects. So certain diseases, the rates were lower in certain places, but sadly, this incredibly ambitious study really didn't move the needle. And yeah, it was a big disappointment and that was the last science that Mildred did.Carol Sutton Lewis: Even when they were working together, Mildred and William never really succeeded in convincing the scientific community to take airborne infection seriously, although their work obviously did move the science forward. So what did sway scientific opinion and when?Carl Zimmer: Yeah, Mildred dies in 1957. William dies in 1963. After the Wellses are dead, their work is dismissed and they themselves are quite forgotten. It really isn't until the early 2000s that a few people rediscover them.The SARS epidemic kicks up in 2003, for example, and I talked to a scientist in Hong Kong named Yuguo Li, and he was trying to understand how was this new disease spreading around? He's looking around and he finds references to papers by William Wells and Mildred Wells. He has no idea who they are and he sees that William Wells had published a book in 1955 and he's like, well, okay, maybe I need to go read the book.Nobody has the book. And the only place that he could find it was in one university in the United States. They photocopied it and shipped it to him in Hong Kong and he finally starts reading it. And it's really hard to read because again William was a terrible writer, unlike Mildred. But after a while it clicks and he's like, oh. That's it. I got it. But again, all the guidelines for controlling pandemics and diseases do not really give much serious attention to airborne infection except for just a couple diseases. And it's not until the COVID pandemic that things finally change.Carol Sutton Lewis: Wow. If we had listened to Mildred and William earlier, what might have been different?Carl Zimmer: Yeah, I do try to imagine a world in which Mildred and William had been taken seriously by more people. If airborne infection was just a seriously recognized thing at the start of the COVID pandemic, we would have been controlling the disease differently from the start. We wouldn't have been wiping down our shopping bags obsessively. People would have been encouraged to open the windows, people would have been encouraged to get air purifiers, ultraviolet lamps might have been installed in places with poor ventilation, masks might not have been so controversial.And instead these intellectual grandchildren of William and Mildred Wells had to reinvent the wheel. They had to do new studies to persuade people finally that a disease could be airborne. And it took a long time. It took months to finally move the needle.Carol Sutton Lewis: Carl, what do you hope people will take away from Mildred's story, which you have so wonderfully detailed in your book, rendering her no longer a lost woman of science? And what do you hope people will take away from the book more broadly?Carl Zimmer: I think sometimes that we imagine that science just marches on smoothly and effortlessly. But science is a human endeavor in all the good ways and in all the not-so-good ways. Science does have a fair amount of tragedy throughout it, as any human endeavor does. I'm sad about what happened to the Wells by the end of their lives, both of them. But in some ways, things are better now.When I'm writing about aerobiology in the early, mid, even late—except for Mildred, it's pretty much all men. But who were the people during the COVID pandemic who led the fight to get recognized as airborne? People like Linsey Marr at Virginia Tech, Kim Prather at University of California, San Diego, Lidia Morawska, an Australian researcher. Now, all women in science still have to contend with all sorts of sexism and sort of baked-in inequalities. But it is striking to me that when you get to the end of the book, the women show up.Carol Sutton Lewis: Well,Carl Zimmer: And they show up in force.Carol Sutton Lewis: And on that very positive note to end on, Carl, thank you so much, first and foremost, for writing this really fascinating book and within it, highlighting a now no longer lost woman of science, Mildred Weeks Wells. Your book is Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, and it's been a pleasure to speak with—Carl Zimmer: Thanks a lot. I really enjoyed talking about Mildred.Carol Sutton Lewis: This has been Lost Women of Science Conversations. Carl Zimmer's book Airborne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe is out now. This episode was hosted by me, Carol Sutton Lewis. Our producer was Luca Evans, and Hansdale Hsu was our sound engineer. Special thanks to our senior managing producer, Deborah Unger, our program manager, Eowyn Burtner, and our co-executive producers, Katie Hafner and Amy Scharf.Thanks also to Jeff DelViscio and our publishing partner, Scientific American. The episode art was created by Lily Whear and Lizzie Younan composes our music. Lost Women of Science is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Anne Wojcicki Foundation. We're distributed by PRX.If you've enjoyed this conversation, go to our website lostwomenofscience.org and subscribe so you'll never miss an episode—that's lostwomenofscience.org. And please share it and give us a rating wherever you listen to podcasts. Oh, and please don't forget to click on the donate button—that helps us bring you even more stories of important female scientists.I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. See you next time.HostCarol Sutton LewisProducerLuca EvansGuest Carl ZimmerCarl Zimmer writes the Origins column for the New York Times and has frequently contributed to The Atlantic, National Geographic, Time, and Scientific American. His journalism has earned numerous awards, including ones from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering. He is the author of fourteen books about science, including Life's Edge.Further Reading:Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. Carl Zimmer. Dutton, 2025Poliomyelitis. International Committee for the Study of Infantile Paralysis. Williams & Wilkins Company, 1932 “Air-borne Infection,” by William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 107, No. 21; November 21, 1936“Air-borne Infection: Sanitary Control,” by William Firth Wells and Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 107, No. 22; November 28, 1936“Ventilation in the Spread of Chickenpox and Measles within School Rooms,” by Mildred Weeks Wells, in JAMA, Vol. 129, No. 3; September 15, 1945“The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill,” by Megan Molteni, in Wired. Published online May 13, 2021WATCH THIS NEXTScience journalist Carl Zimmer joins host Rachel Feltman to look back at the history of the field, from ancient Greek “miasmas” to Louis Pasteur’s unorthodox experiments to biological warfare.
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  • 4 days left: Up to $900 off your ticket and 90% off for your +1 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

    Here’s the deal: Only 4 days left to save up to on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 ticket — and an additional 90% off for your +1.
    From October 27–29, San Francisco’s Moscone West transforms into the epicenter of tech innovation as 10,000 tech, startup, and VC leaders gather for the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt — celebrating two decades of championing startups, driving innovation, and fueling growth across the ecosystem.
    The clock’s ticking. Lock in your ticket here before the price jumps on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

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    Disrupt isn’t just a conference — it’s a catalyst. It’s where big ideas meet unexpected moments. In the middle of thousands of ambitious minds, it’s the personal connections that leave a lasting mark. A conversation that sparks a pivot. A speaker who reframes your thinking. A stranger who becomes your next collaborator. This is where momentum starts.
    Real talk, real insight
    These tech leaders didn’t just build the future — they’re here to show you how. Six stages packed with the insight and inspiration you need. With topics ranging from AI and space to startup launches, IPOs, and next-gen tech, there’s something for every innovator.
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    SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 20: Audience members watch panels during TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 on October 20, 2022 in San Francisco, California.Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images
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    4 days left: Up to $900 off your ticket and 90% off for your +1 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
    Here’s the deal: Only 4 days left to save up to on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 ticket — and an additional 90% off for your +1. From October 27–29, San Francisco’s Moscone West transforms into the epicenter of tech innovation as 10,000 tech, startup, and VC leaders gather for the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt — celebrating two decades of championing startups, driving innovation, and fueling growth across the ecosystem. The clock’s ticking. Lock in your ticket here before the price jumps on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. What makes the 20th TechCrunch Disrupt unmissable Disrupt isn’t just a conference — it’s a catalyst. It’s where big ideas meet unexpected moments. In the middle of thousands of ambitious minds, it’s the personal connections that leave a lasting mark. A conversation that sparks a pivot. A speaker who reframes your thinking. A stranger who becomes your next collaborator. This is where momentum starts. Real talk, real insight These tech leaders didn’t just build the future — they’re here to show you how. Six stages packed with the insight and inspiration you need. With topics ranging from AI and space to startup launches, IPOs, and next-gen tech, there’s something for every innovator. Image Credits:Matthias Balk / Getty Images Adam Bain, 01 Advisors Astro Teller, X, The Moonshot Factory David Cramer, Sentry David George, Andreessen Horowitz Gale Wilkinson, VITALIZE Venture Capital Nikola Todorovic, Wonder Dynamics, an Autodesk Company Nirav Tolia, Nextdoor Ryan Petersen, Flexport Sangeen Zeb, GVZeya Yang, IVP See the growing speaker lineup You’ll hear from technologists on the edge of AI breakthroughs. Investors who don’t just fund trends but shape them. Startup founders who somehow found the clarity to bet everything on a problem no one else thought to solve. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 20: Audience members watch panels during TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 on October 20, 2022 in San Francisco, California.Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images The Disrupt difference This isn’t a spectator event — it’s three days of full-throttle innovation and real interaction. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Dynamic breakout sessions built for real dialogue with today’s top tech leaders.  Interactive, deep-dive roundtables that go beyond the surface.  The energetic Startup Battlefield, our live global pitch competition where the world’s most promising early-stage startups compete for a equity-free prize — and get real-time feedback from top VCs. Ready to compete? Submit your application before June 9. Cutting-edge demos and next-gen tech from around the world, all under one roof in our immersive Expo Hall. Startups: want in? Secure your table here before your competitor does. What happens at Disrupt isn’t just seen — it’s felt. Image Credits:Eric Slomonson, The Photo Group Lock in your savings before May 25 Now’s the moment to act. Early Bird pricing saves you up to on your pass. Want to bring a colleague, cofounder, or friend? You can grab a second ticket at 90% off. These savings expire on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Secure your spot today and be a part of the Disrupt experience. #days #left #off #your #ticket
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    4 days left: Up to $900 off your ticket and 90% off for your +1 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
    Here’s the deal: Only 4 days left to save up to $900 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 ticket — and an additional 90% off for your +1. From October 27–29, San Francisco’s Moscone West transforms into the epicenter of tech innovation as 10,000 tech, startup, and VC leaders gather for the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt — celebrating two decades of championing startups, driving innovation, and fueling growth across the ecosystem. The clock’s ticking. Lock in your ticket here before the price jumps on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. What makes the 20th TechCrunch Disrupt unmissable Disrupt isn’t just a conference — it’s a catalyst. It’s where big ideas meet unexpected moments. In the middle of thousands of ambitious minds, it’s the personal connections that leave a lasting mark. A conversation that sparks a pivot. A speaker who reframes your thinking. A stranger who becomes your next collaborator. This is where momentum starts. Real talk, real insight These tech leaders didn’t just build the future — they’re here to show you how. Six stages packed with the insight and inspiration you need. With topics ranging from AI and space to startup launches, IPOs, and next-gen tech, there’s something for every innovator. Image Credits:Matthias Balk / Getty Images Adam Bain, 01 Advisors Astro Teller, X, The Moonshot Factory David Cramer, Sentry David George, Andreessen Horowitz Gale Wilkinson, VITALIZE Venture Capital Nikola Todorovic, Wonder Dynamics, an Autodesk Company Nirav Tolia, Nextdoor Ryan Petersen, Flexport Sangeen Zeb, GV (Google Ventures) Zeya Yang, IVP See the growing speaker lineup You’ll hear from technologists on the edge of AI breakthroughs. Investors who don’t just fund trends but shape them. Startup founders who somehow found the clarity to bet everything on a problem no one else thought to solve. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 20: Audience members watch panels during TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 on October 20, 2022 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch)Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images The Disrupt difference This isn’t a spectator event — it’s three days of full-throttle innovation and real interaction. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Dynamic breakout sessions built for real dialogue with today’s top tech leaders.  Interactive, deep-dive roundtables that go beyond the surface.  The energetic Startup Battlefield, our live global pitch competition where the world’s most promising early-stage startups compete for a $100,000 equity-free prize — and get real-time feedback from top VCs. Ready to compete? Submit your application before June 9. Cutting-edge demos and next-gen tech from around the world, all under one roof in our immersive Expo Hall. Startups: want in? Secure your table here before your competitor does. What happens at Disrupt isn’t just seen — it’s felt. Image Credits:Eric Slomonson, The Photo Group Lock in your savings before May 25 Now’s the moment to act. Early Bird pricing saves you up to $900 on your pass. Want to bring a colleague, cofounder, or friend? You can grab a second ticket at 90% off. These savings expire on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Secure your spot today and be a part of the Disrupt experience.
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  • Rooms in the Elephant: Feix&Merlin’s restoration of Walworth Town Hall

    On a sunny spring morning in south London, Walworth Square offers a freshly minted moment of respite from the clamorous main road. Around a peculiar new war memorialnew trees shiver in the breeze, while, beneath them, a man, seemingly the worse for wear, stares vacantly at his scruffy shoes. Another man with enormous shoulders emerges from a gym and begins to take selfies.
    Across the square, steps rise to the grand Victorian jumble of Walworth Town Hall, which hasn’t been a town hall since the mid-1960s. Now, thanks to a fire and the near-bankruptcy of local government, the building houses offices, a café and a community centre. The architect of this transformation, Feix&Merlin, has had to negotiate a problematic inheritance – alandmark, catastrophic fire damage, impecunious owners and angry locals – and knead it into shape. In this they have succeeded, but the shape that it has assumed will, through no fault of the architects, prove indigestible to some. 
    The kernel of the extant structure was built as a church vestry in 1865. It later became Southwark Town Hall and was variously extended. Following the council’s evacuation to Camberwell in 1965, what remained was a public library, a local museum and municipal offices. In 2013 the roof caught fire and much of the Grade II-listed building was reduced to a shell; the remainder rotted behind hoardings until 2022, when work finally commenced on its restoration. Advertisement

    The protracted nature of this process can ultimately be attributed to chancellor George Osborne’s austerity budget of 2010. Although Southwark had at first intended to return the building to its original uses – and held a competition on this basis in 2015, which was won by Avanti Architects – it realised, on seeing the price tag, that this would be impossible. Avanti was dismissed and a new competition was held in 2018, with a revised brief. This emphasised the long-term commercial sustainability of the building, as well as an element of cultural use, taking into consideration the needs of the local community. The winners were developer General Projects working with Feix&Merlin.
    Their main gambit was to turn the building over to offices. However, on consulting the public while working up their proposal, they quickly realised how upset local residents were about the loss of public ownership. As a result, a community centre was added to the programme. It was the task of the designers to square this circle: how to retain the look and feel of a public building while optimising its new private function. They returned the exterior of the protected structure to its original form, including restoring the pattern to the roof tiles, which had been lost over the years. The ground floor houses the remaining public, or publicly accessible, spaces – the lobby café and community centre. The latter can be hired free of charge by local groups. The rest of the building is now offices. These also occupy its grandest rooms: the former main stair, debating chamber, library and museum. The last two functions have been transferred to a new building across the square, where they are housed in a new ‘heritage centre’.
    The architects have restored the historically significant interiors, more or less, removing the institutional accretions that had latterly defaced them, such as asphalt that had been laid on top of the masonry stairs and the false ceiling that hid the skylight above it. They also exposed the boxed-in balustrades on the mezzanine of the library and restored the parquet flooring throughout. All structural interventions have been achieved using cross-laminated timber. The roof has been reconstructed using it, creating a new storey with some intriguing windowless cubby holes inside its terminal turrets. In the former debating chamber, the structure of the roof is exposed to view, a striking piece of engineering. On the ground floor, the ceiling of the space that now houses the lobby-cum-café, which had fallen in during the fire, is supported by hefty wooden arches.
    In some places, the architects have made looser interpretations of the original fabric. The public viewing gallery of the debating chamber has been extended to cover three sides of the room and a pattern derived from the lost balustrade has been cut into sheet steel to create a protective barrier for this new mezzanine. Certain elements, especially in the less important interiors, have been preserved as the fire left them. Where internal walls were removed, their footprint remains, breaking up the parquet, so that, as Julia Feix puts it, visitors can still read the original plan. Above a painted dado, the pitted and scorched surface of the old plaster, or the bricks exposed beneath it, have been preserved in their damaged state. Feix says this approach ‘lets the building talk about its history, rather than creating a pastiche of an era that’s long gone’.
     This move has by now become an established procedure when dealing with rescue jobs, the obvious local example being Battersea Arts Centre, which Haworth Tompkins left similarly scarred following a 2015 fire. Its antecedents stretch back to Hans Döllgast’s post-war work on the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. In its more recent manifestations we could call this approach a fetishisation of decay, which raises questions as to what is being commemorated, and why. In Döllgast’s case, the answers were obvious: the Second World War, in order to prevent wilful amnesia. But in these two more recent examples, where the catastrophes in question were accidental fires, one might ask why a coat of plaster shouldn’t have been applied. Advertisement

    Walworth Town Hall helps to clarify the logic at work here, which is partly born of necessity. The building could not be restored to its previous condition or use, to the dismay of some locals, including the Walworth Society heritage group. The latter objected to the perceived loss of public access and was concerned that what remained could easily be revoked: for instance, if the café were unprofitable, it could be turned into more offices. They also disliked certain architectural aspects of the proposal, which they called ‘generic’: ‘neither bold and confident designs nor faithful restorations’. After protracted consultation, these concerns were taken into consideration by the architects in the restoration of the more significant rooms. Given the wrangling, it seems to me that, as in the case of Flores & Prats’ Sala Beckett in Barcelona, these patinated surfaces are intended to produce an impression of authenticity, without recourse torestoration, or ‘pastiche’, as the architects put it. It seems likely, however, that this code speaks more clearly to designers than to members of heritage groups. 
    But buildings are not made for heritage groups. Instead, this one is addressing two distinct publics. The community centre still opens to the Walworth Road, with its enduringly working-class character, and has already seen good use. However, the commercial part of the building has been reoriented to the new square to the north, from which it is accessed via the steps we traversed earlier. On the other side of the square rise the brick-slip-clad southern reaches of Elephant Park, the controversial development built by Lendlease on the rubble of the Heygate Estate. The Town Hall has turned its new face to these new Elephantines, the gym-dwellers who can afford to eat in the café and might choose to rent desk space here. To return to my earlier question regarding the catastrophe being commemorated by these charred walls, perhaps the answer is: the conflagration of local government, which produced this double-headed building.
    Tom Wilkinson is a writer, editor and teacher specialising in the history of architecture and the visual culture of modern Germany
    Architect’s view
    As architects, we often aim to deliver transformational change, but at Walworth Town Hall, transformation came through restraint. Rather than imposing a vision, we allowed the building to speak, guiding us in knowing where to intervene and where to hold back.
    One key move was the reinvention of the former debating chamber into a light-filled triple-height space. Historical features were carefully restored, while a new mezzanine with a CNC-cut solid steel balustrade subtly echoes the original decorative railings of the former viewing gallery. The space is now crowned with a new exposed CLT timber roof with a bespoke light feature at its centre. All new structural and architectural elements were executed in timber, speaking to the sustainability agenda, aligning with modern environmental standards and enhancing user wellbeing. Timber’s biophilic properties connect occupants with nature, supporting physical and mental health while improving air quality.
    Crucial to our design language was an honest celebration of the building’s history, including the fire-damaged ‘scars’ that tell its story. While a handful of spaces were traditionally restored, most were approached with a light touch. New finishes were installed only up to the lower dado level, with the rest of the wall surfaces and ceilings left as found, retaining their battle-worn character. Subtle material changes, such as microcement infills in the parquet, hint at the former wall layouts and structures.
    Striking a balance between restoration and contemporary intervention was essential. It has been a privilege to work on a building with such legacy and seeing the community return after more than a decade is deeply rewarding. Walworth Town Hall now honours its past while looking boldly to the future.
    Julia Feix, director, Feix&Merlin Architects

     
    Client’s view
    We approached this project with a vision for developing a new blueprint for bringing at-risk municipal landmarks back to life. Now restored to its former glory and removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register, Walworth Town Hall has been given back to a new generation with an exciting new purpose, made viable and fit for modern standards. In partnership with Southwark Council, and closely collaborating with Historic England and local community groups, we worked with Feix&Merlin to deliver a sensitive but impactful design approach.
    Our vision was that the building’s legacy should be revealed, rather than erased. The result strikes a balance between celebrating its inherited state and adapting it to modern use, combining elements of old and new by making sympathetic references to its beautiful 19th century architecture. Distinctly modern features, such as the use of cross-laminated timber to replace sections of the building damaged by the 2013 fire, are a reflective and contemporary interpretation of the original design. Elephant and Castle is undergoing a significant regeneration and Walworth Town Hall functions as a bridge between the area’s authentic heritage and its new future. Driven by a collaborative process, and tailor-made for small businesses to create, inspire and thrive, the reimagined Walworth Town Hall lays the groundwork for a new creative community to grow in this local destination. 
    Frederic Schwass, chief development officer, General Projects

     
    Engineer’s view
    Heyne Tillett Steel was engaged as structural and civil engineer from competition stage to completion. It was both a challenging restoration of a listed building and an ambitious contemporary reconstruction, in exposed engineered timber, of its pre-fire form – at the same time creating better connectivity and adding floor area.  
    Built in various stages, the existing comprises nearly all methods of historic construction: timber, masonry, filler joist, clay pot, cast and wrought iron. The building had to be extensively investigated to understand its condition, fitness for reuse and, in some cases, capacity to extend.   Particular attention was paid to the impact of the fire and fire dousing in terms of movement, rot and corrosion. Repairs were carried out only where necessary after an extended period of drying and monitoring.
    The original council chamber roof was rebuilt as hybrid trussesto span the approximately 13 x 13m double-height volume below. The roof was prefabricated in just four pieces, built off the retained walls and installed in under two weeks.  A cross-laminated timbercovering creates the roof’s truncated pyramid shape.
    A new floor was added within the original massing of the west wing, utilising CLT slabs and a glulam ‘spine’ beam, creating unobstructed, exposed CLT ceilings across 7m bays at either side. The significant amount of retention and timber additions mean that the project scores very highly on benchmarks for embodied carbon, competitive beyond 2030 targets.
    Jonathan Flint, senior associate, Heyne Tillett Steel

     
    Working detail
    The restoration presented a rare opportunity to reimagine a historic structure using sustainable, expressive materials. The original council chamber roof, destroyed by fire, was rebuilt as a hybrid CLT/glulam and steel ties structure, combining the aesthetic warmth of timber with the tensile strength of steel. The new roof had to clear-span approximately 13 x 13m over a double-height volume, and as the truncated pyramid structure was kept exposed, the increased volume of the space added a dramatic effect while introducing a contemporary character.
    Timber was selected not only for its sustainability credentials but also for its light  weight, crucial in minimising loads on the existing retained masonry. The trusses were prefabricated offsite in four large components, ensuring precision and reducing construction time and disruption on site. Once craned into position, they were set atop an existing concrete ring beam, a structural necessity installed after the fire to stabilise the perimeter walls in the absence of a roof. This ring beam now discreetly supports the new load paths. The combination of the timber structure in combination with the exposed brick and traditional plaster achieves a visually striking, materially honest reconstruction that honours the building’s historic proportions while firmly rooting it in contemporary sustainable practice.
    Julia Feix, director, Feix&Merlin Architects

     
    Project data
    Location: Southwark, south London
    Start on site: February 2022
    Completion: November 2024
    Gross internal floor area: 5,000m2
    Construction cost: £18.4 million
    Form of contract: Design and build
    Construction cost per m2: £4,500
    Architect: Feix&Merlin Architects
    Client: General Projects
    Structural engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel
    M&E consultant: RED Engineering
    Quantity surveyor: Quartz
    Heritage architect: Donald Insall Associates, Heritage ArchitecturePlanning consultant: Rolfe Judd
    Landscape consultant: Town & Country Gardens
    Acoustic consultant: Sharps Redmore
    Transport consultant: Caneparo Associates
    Project manager: Quartz
    External lighting consultant: Atrium
    Specialist light feature: Barrisol
    Fit-out contractor: White Paper
    Art curation: Art Atelier
    Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement: Hunter
    Community space operator: WTH Community Space
    Principal designer: ORSA
    CDM co-ordinator: ORSA
    Approved building inspector: Sweco Building Control
    Main contractor: Conamar
    Embodied carbon: 52 kgCO2/m2
    #rooms #elephant #feixampampmerlins #restoration #walworth
    Rooms in the Elephant: Feix&Merlin’s restoration of Walworth Town Hall
    On a sunny spring morning in south London, Walworth Square offers a freshly minted moment of respite from the clamorous main road. Around a peculiar new war memorialnew trees shiver in the breeze, while, beneath them, a man, seemingly the worse for wear, stares vacantly at his scruffy shoes. Another man with enormous shoulders emerges from a gym and begins to take selfies. Across the square, steps rise to the grand Victorian jumble of Walworth Town Hall, which hasn’t been a town hall since the mid-1960s. Now, thanks to a fire and the near-bankruptcy of local government, the building houses offices, a café and a community centre. The architect of this transformation, Feix&Merlin, has had to negotiate a problematic inheritance – alandmark, catastrophic fire damage, impecunious owners and angry locals – and knead it into shape. In this they have succeeded, but the shape that it has assumed will, through no fault of the architects, prove indigestible to some.  The kernel of the extant structure was built as a church vestry in 1865. It later became Southwark Town Hall and was variously extended. Following the council’s evacuation to Camberwell in 1965, what remained was a public library, a local museum and municipal offices. In 2013 the roof caught fire and much of the Grade II-listed building was reduced to a shell; the remainder rotted behind hoardings until 2022, when work finally commenced on its restoration. Advertisement The protracted nature of this process can ultimately be attributed to chancellor George Osborne’s austerity budget of 2010. Although Southwark had at first intended to return the building to its original uses – and held a competition on this basis in 2015, which was won by Avanti Architects – it realised, on seeing the price tag, that this would be impossible. Avanti was dismissed and a new competition was held in 2018, with a revised brief. This emphasised the long-term commercial sustainability of the building, as well as an element of cultural use, taking into consideration the needs of the local community. The winners were developer General Projects working with Feix&Merlin. Their main gambit was to turn the building over to offices. However, on consulting the public while working up their proposal, they quickly realised how upset local residents were about the loss of public ownership. As a result, a community centre was added to the programme. It was the task of the designers to square this circle: how to retain the look and feel of a public building while optimising its new private function. They returned the exterior of the protected structure to its original form, including restoring the pattern to the roof tiles, which had been lost over the years. The ground floor houses the remaining public, or publicly accessible, spaces – the lobby café and community centre. The latter can be hired free of charge by local groups. The rest of the building is now offices. These also occupy its grandest rooms: the former main stair, debating chamber, library and museum. The last two functions have been transferred to a new building across the square, where they are housed in a new ‘heritage centre’. The architects have restored the historically significant interiors, more or less, removing the institutional accretions that had latterly defaced them, such as asphalt that had been laid on top of the masonry stairs and the false ceiling that hid the skylight above it. They also exposed the boxed-in balustrades on the mezzanine of the library and restored the parquet flooring throughout. All structural interventions have been achieved using cross-laminated timber. The roof has been reconstructed using it, creating a new storey with some intriguing windowless cubby holes inside its terminal turrets. In the former debating chamber, the structure of the roof is exposed to view, a striking piece of engineering. On the ground floor, the ceiling of the space that now houses the lobby-cum-café, which had fallen in during the fire, is supported by hefty wooden arches. In some places, the architects have made looser interpretations of the original fabric. The public viewing gallery of the debating chamber has been extended to cover three sides of the room and a pattern derived from the lost balustrade has been cut into sheet steel to create a protective barrier for this new mezzanine. Certain elements, especially in the less important interiors, have been preserved as the fire left them. Where internal walls were removed, their footprint remains, breaking up the parquet, so that, as Julia Feix puts it, visitors can still read the original plan. Above a painted dado, the pitted and scorched surface of the old plaster, or the bricks exposed beneath it, have been preserved in their damaged state. Feix says this approach ‘lets the building talk about its history, rather than creating a pastiche of an era that’s long gone’.  This move has by now become an established procedure when dealing with rescue jobs, the obvious local example being Battersea Arts Centre, which Haworth Tompkins left similarly scarred following a 2015 fire. Its antecedents stretch back to Hans Döllgast’s post-war work on the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. In its more recent manifestations we could call this approach a fetishisation of decay, which raises questions as to what is being commemorated, and why. In Döllgast’s case, the answers were obvious: the Second World War, in order to prevent wilful amnesia. But in these two more recent examples, where the catastrophes in question were accidental fires, one might ask why a coat of plaster shouldn’t have been applied. Advertisement Walworth Town Hall helps to clarify the logic at work here, which is partly born of necessity. The building could not be restored to its previous condition or use, to the dismay of some locals, including the Walworth Society heritage group. The latter objected to the perceived loss of public access and was concerned that what remained could easily be revoked: for instance, if the café were unprofitable, it could be turned into more offices. They also disliked certain architectural aspects of the proposal, which they called ‘generic’: ‘neither bold and confident designs nor faithful restorations’. After protracted consultation, these concerns were taken into consideration by the architects in the restoration of the more significant rooms. Given the wrangling, it seems to me that, as in the case of Flores & Prats’ Sala Beckett in Barcelona, these patinated surfaces are intended to produce an impression of authenticity, without recourse torestoration, or ‘pastiche’, as the architects put it. It seems likely, however, that this code speaks more clearly to designers than to members of heritage groups.  But buildings are not made for heritage groups. Instead, this one is addressing two distinct publics. The community centre still opens to the Walworth Road, with its enduringly working-class character, and has already seen good use. However, the commercial part of the building has been reoriented to the new square to the north, from which it is accessed via the steps we traversed earlier. On the other side of the square rise the brick-slip-clad southern reaches of Elephant Park, the controversial development built by Lendlease on the rubble of the Heygate Estate. The Town Hall has turned its new face to these new Elephantines, the gym-dwellers who can afford to eat in the café and might choose to rent desk space here. To return to my earlier question regarding the catastrophe being commemorated by these charred walls, perhaps the answer is: the conflagration of local government, which produced this double-headed building. Tom Wilkinson is a writer, editor and teacher specialising in the history of architecture and the visual culture of modern Germany Architect’s view As architects, we often aim to deliver transformational change, but at Walworth Town Hall, transformation came through restraint. Rather than imposing a vision, we allowed the building to speak, guiding us in knowing where to intervene and where to hold back. One key move was the reinvention of the former debating chamber into a light-filled triple-height space. Historical features were carefully restored, while a new mezzanine with a CNC-cut solid steel balustrade subtly echoes the original decorative railings of the former viewing gallery. The space is now crowned with a new exposed CLT timber roof with a bespoke light feature at its centre. All new structural and architectural elements were executed in timber, speaking to the sustainability agenda, aligning with modern environmental standards and enhancing user wellbeing. Timber’s biophilic properties connect occupants with nature, supporting physical and mental health while improving air quality. Crucial to our design language was an honest celebration of the building’s history, including the fire-damaged ‘scars’ that tell its story. While a handful of spaces were traditionally restored, most were approached with a light touch. New finishes were installed only up to the lower dado level, with the rest of the wall surfaces and ceilings left as found, retaining their battle-worn character. Subtle material changes, such as microcement infills in the parquet, hint at the former wall layouts and structures. Striking a balance between restoration and contemporary intervention was essential. It has been a privilege to work on a building with such legacy and seeing the community return after more than a decade is deeply rewarding. Walworth Town Hall now honours its past while looking boldly to the future. Julia Feix, director, Feix&Merlin Architects   Client’s view We approached this project with a vision for developing a new blueprint for bringing at-risk municipal landmarks back to life. Now restored to its former glory and removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register, Walworth Town Hall has been given back to a new generation with an exciting new purpose, made viable and fit for modern standards. In partnership with Southwark Council, and closely collaborating with Historic England and local community groups, we worked with Feix&Merlin to deliver a sensitive but impactful design approach. Our vision was that the building’s legacy should be revealed, rather than erased. The result strikes a balance between celebrating its inherited state and adapting it to modern use, combining elements of old and new by making sympathetic references to its beautiful 19th century architecture. Distinctly modern features, such as the use of cross-laminated timber to replace sections of the building damaged by the 2013 fire, are a reflective and contemporary interpretation of the original design. Elephant and Castle is undergoing a significant regeneration and Walworth Town Hall functions as a bridge between the area’s authentic heritage and its new future. Driven by a collaborative process, and tailor-made for small businesses to create, inspire and thrive, the reimagined Walworth Town Hall lays the groundwork for a new creative community to grow in this local destination.  Frederic Schwass, chief development officer, General Projects   Engineer’s view Heyne Tillett Steel was engaged as structural and civil engineer from competition stage to completion. It was both a challenging restoration of a listed building and an ambitious contemporary reconstruction, in exposed engineered timber, of its pre-fire form – at the same time creating better connectivity and adding floor area.   Built in various stages, the existing comprises nearly all methods of historic construction: timber, masonry, filler joist, clay pot, cast and wrought iron. The building had to be extensively investigated to understand its condition, fitness for reuse and, in some cases, capacity to extend.   Particular attention was paid to the impact of the fire and fire dousing in terms of movement, rot and corrosion. Repairs were carried out only where necessary after an extended period of drying and monitoring. The original council chamber roof was rebuilt as hybrid trussesto span the approximately 13 x 13m double-height volume below. The roof was prefabricated in just four pieces, built off the retained walls and installed in under two weeks.  A cross-laminated timbercovering creates the roof’s truncated pyramid shape. A new floor was added within the original massing of the west wing, utilising CLT slabs and a glulam ‘spine’ beam, creating unobstructed, exposed CLT ceilings across 7m bays at either side. The significant amount of retention and timber additions mean that the project scores very highly on benchmarks for embodied carbon, competitive beyond 2030 targets. Jonathan Flint, senior associate, Heyne Tillett Steel   Working detail The restoration presented a rare opportunity to reimagine a historic structure using sustainable, expressive materials. The original council chamber roof, destroyed by fire, was rebuilt as a hybrid CLT/glulam and steel ties structure, combining the aesthetic warmth of timber with the tensile strength of steel. The new roof had to clear-span approximately 13 x 13m over a double-height volume, and as the truncated pyramid structure was kept exposed, the increased volume of the space added a dramatic effect while introducing a contemporary character. Timber was selected not only for its sustainability credentials but also for its light  weight, crucial in minimising loads on the existing retained masonry. The trusses were prefabricated offsite in four large components, ensuring precision and reducing construction time and disruption on site. Once craned into position, they were set atop an existing concrete ring beam, a structural necessity installed after the fire to stabilise the perimeter walls in the absence of a roof. This ring beam now discreetly supports the new load paths. The combination of the timber structure in combination with the exposed brick and traditional plaster achieves a visually striking, materially honest reconstruction that honours the building’s historic proportions while firmly rooting it in contemporary sustainable practice. Julia Feix, director, Feix&Merlin Architects   Project data Location: Southwark, south London Start on site: February 2022 Completion: November 2024 Gross internal floor area: 5,000m2 Construction cost: £18.4 million Form of contract: Design and build Construction cost per m2: £4,500 Architect: Feix&Merlin Architects Client: General Projects Structural engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel M&E consultant: RED Engineering Quantity surveyor: Quartz Heritage architect: Donald Insall Associates, Heritage ArchitecturePlanning consultant: Rolfe Judd Landscape consultant: Town & Country Gardens Acoustic consultant: Sharps Redmore Transport consultant: Caneparo Associates Project manager: Quartz External lighting consultant: Atrium Specialist light feature: Barrisol Fit-out contractor: White Paper Art curation: Art Atelier Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement: Hunter Community space operator: WTH Community Space Principal designer: ORSA CDM co-ordinator: ORSA Approved building inspector: Sweco Building Control Main contractor: Conamar Embodied carbon: 52 kgCO2/m2 #rooms #elephant #feixampampmerlins #restoration #walworth
    WWW.ARCHITECTSJOURNAL.CO.UK
    Rooms in the Elephant: Feix&Merlin’s restoration of Walworth Town Hall
    On a sunny spring morning in south London, Walworth Square offers a freshly minted moment of respite from the clamorous main road. Around a peculiar new war memorial (to which war? The tracksuited boy perched on a branch is not enlightening) new trees shiver in the breeze, while, beneath them, a man, seemingly the worse for wear, stares vacantly at his scruffy shoes. Another man with enormous shoulders emerges from a gym and begins to take selfies. Across the square, steps rise to the grand Victorian jumble of Walworth Town Hall, which hasn’t been a town hall since the mid-1960s. Now, thanks to a fire and the near-bankruptcy of local government, the building houses offices, a café and a community centre. The architect of this transformation, Feix&Merlin, has had to negotiate a problematic inheritance – a (minor) landmark, catastrophic fire damage, impecunious owners and angry locals – and knead it into shape. In this they have succeeded, but the shape that it has assumed will, through no fault of the architects, prove indigestible to some.  The kernel of the extant structure was built as a church vestry in 1865. It later became Southwark Town Hall and was variously extended. Following the council’s evacuation to Camberwell in 1965, what remained was a public library, a local museum and municipal offices. In 2013 the roof caught fire and much of the Grade II-listed building was reduced to a shell; the remainder rotted behind hoardings until 2022, when work finally commenced on its restoration. Advertisement The protracted nature of this process can ultimately be attributed to chancellor George Osborne’s austerity budget of 2010. Although Southwark had at first intended to return the building to its original uses – and held a competition on this basis in 2015, which was won by Avanti Architects – it realised, on seeing the price tag, that this would be impossible. Avanti was dismissed and a new competition was held in 2018, with a revised brief. This emphasised the long-term commercial sustainability of the building, as well as an element of cultural use, taking into consideration the needs of the local community. The winners were developer General Projects working with Feix&Merlin. Their main gambit was to turn the building over to offices. However, on consulting the public while working up their proposal, they quickly realised how upset local residents were about the loss of public ownership. As a result, a community centre was added to the programme. It was the task of the designers to square this circle: how to retain the look and feel of a public building while optimising its new private function. They returned the exterior of the protected structure to its original form, including restoring the pattern to the roof tiles, which had been lost over the years. The ground floor houses the remaining public, or publicly accessible, spaces – the lobby café and community centre. The latter can be hired free of charge by local groups. The rest of the building is now offices. These also occupy its grandest rooms: the former main stair, debating chamber, library and museum. The last two functions have been transferred to a new building across the square, where they are housed in a new ‘heritage centre’. The architects have restored the historically significant interiors, more or less, removing the institutional accretions that had latterly defaced them, such as asphalt that had been laid on top of the masonry stairs and the false ceiling that hid the skylight above it. They also exposed the boxed-in balustrades on the mezzanine of the library and restored the parquet flooring throughout. All structural interventions have been achieved using cross-laminated timber. The roof has been reconstructed using it, creating a new storey with some intriguing windowless cubby holes inside its terminal turrets (handy for undistracted meetings). In the former debating chamber, the structure of the roof is exposed to view, a striking piece of engineering. On the ground floor, the ceiling of the space that now houses the lobby-cum-café, which had fallen in during the fire, is supported by hefty wooden arches. In some places, the architects have made looser interpretations of the original fabric. The public viewing gallery of the debating chamber has been extended to cover three sides of the room and a pattern derived from the lost balustrade has been cut into sheet steel to create a protective barrier for this new mezzanine. Certain elements, especially in the less important interiors, have been preserved as the fire left them. Where internal walls were removed, their footprint remains, breaking up the parquet, so that, as Julia Feix puts it, visitors can still read the original plan. Above a painted dado, the pitted and scorched surface of the old plaster, or the bricks exposed beneath it, have been preserved in their damaged state. Feix says this approach ‘lets the building talk about its history, rather than creating a pastiche of an era that’s long gone’.  This move has by now become an established procedure when dealing with rescue jobs, the obvious local example being Battersea Arts Centre, which Haworth Tompkins left similarly scarred following a 2015 fire. Its antecedents stretch back to Hans Döllgast’s post-war work on the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. In its more recent manifestations we could call this approach a fetishisation of decay, which raises questions as to what is being commemorated, and why. In Döllgast’s case, the answers were obvious: the Second World War, in order to prevent wilful amnesia. But in these two more recent examples, where the catastrophes in question were accidental fires, one might ask why a coat of plaster shouldn’t have been applied. Advertisement Walworth Town Hall helps to clarify the logic at work here, which is partly born of necessity. The building could not be restored to its previous condition or use, to the dismay of some locals, including the Walworth Society heritage group. The latter objected to the perceived loss of public access and was concerned that what remained could easily be revoked: for instance, if the café were unprofitable, it could be turned into more offices. They also disliked certain architectural aspects of the proposal, which they called ‘generic’: ‘neither bold and confident designs nor faithful restorations’. After protracted consultation, these concerns were taken into consideration by the architects in the restoration of the more significant rooms. Given the wrangling, it seems to me that, as in the case of Flores & Prats’ Sala Beckett in Barcelona, these patinated surfaces are intended to produce an impression of authenticity, without recourse to (prohibitively expensive) restoration, or ‘pastiche’, as the architects put it. It seems likely, however, that this code speaks more clearly to designers than to members of heritage groups.  But buildings are not made for heritage groups. Instead, this one is addressing two distinct publics. The community centre still opens to the Walworth Road, with its enduringly working-class character, and has already seen good use. However, the commercial part of the building has been reoriented to the new square to the north, from which it is accessed via the steps we traversed earlier. On the other side of the square rise the brick-slip-clad southern reaches of Elephant Park, the controversial development built by Lendlease on the rubble of the Heygate Estate. The Town Hall has turned its new face to these new Elephantines, the gym-dwellers who can afford to eat in the café and might choose to rent desk space here (if they have to work, that is). To return to my earlier question regarding the catastrophe being commemorated by these charred walls, perhaps the answer is: the conflagration of local government, which produced this double-headed building. Tom Wilkinson is a writer, editor and teacher specialising in the history of architecture and the visual culture of modern Germany Architect’s view As architects, we often aim to deliver transformational change, but at Walworth Town Hall, transformation came through restraint. Rather than imposing a vision, we allowed the building to speak, guiding us in knowing where to intervene and where to hold back. One key move was the reinvention of the former debating chamber into a light-filled triple-height space. Historical features were carefully restored, while a new mezzanine with a CNC-cut solid steel balustrade subtly echoes the original decorative railings of the former viewing gallery. The space is now crowned with a new exposed CLT timber roof with a bespoke light feature at its centre. All new structural and architectural elements were executed in timber, speaking to the sustainability agenda, aligning with modern environmental standards and enhancing user wellbeing. Timber’s biophilic properties connect occupants with nature, supporting physical and mental health while improving air quality. Crucial to our design language was an honest celebration of the building’s history, including the fire-damaged ‘scars’ that tell its story. While a handful of spaces were traditionally restored, most were approached with a light touch. New finishes were installed only up to the lower dado level, with the rest of the wall surfaces and ceilings left as found, retaining their battle-worn character (cleaned up and made safe, of course). Subtle material changes, such as microcement infills in the parquet, hint at the former wall layouts and structures. Striking a balance between restoration and contemporary intervention was essential. It has been a privilege to work on a building with such legacy and seeing the community return after more than a decade is deeply rewarding. Walworth Town Hall now honours its past while looking boldly to the future. Julia Feix, director, Feix&Merlin Architects   Client’s view We approached this project with a vision for developing a new blueprint for bringing at-risk municipal landmarks back to life. Now restored to its former glory and removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register, Walworth Town Hall has been given back to a new generation with an exciting new purpose, made viable and fit for modern standards. In partnership with Southwark Council, and closely collaborating with Historic England and local community groups, we worked with Feix&Merlin to deliver a sensitive but impactful design approach. Our vision was that the building’s legacy should be revealed, rather than erased. The result strikes a balance between celebrating its inherited state and adapting it to modern use, combining elements of old and new by making sympathetic references to its beautiful 19th century architecture. Distinctly modern features, such as the use of cross-laminated timber to replace sections of the building damaged by the 2013 fire, are a reflective and contemporary interpretation of the original design. Elephant and Castle is undergoing a significant regeneration and Walworth Town Hall functions as a bridge between the area’s authentic heritage and its new future. Driven by a collaborative process, and tailor-made for small businesses to create, inspire and thrive, the reimagined Walworth Town Hall lays the groundwork for a new creative community to grow in this local destination.  Frederic Schwass, chief development officer, General Projects   Engineer’s view Heyne Tillett Steel was engaged as structural and civil engineer from competition stage to completion. It was both a challenging restoration of a listed building and an ambitious contemporary reconstruction, in exposed engineered timber, of its pre-fire form – at the same time creating better connectivity and adding floor area.   Built in various stages, the existing comprises nearly all methods of historic construction: timber, masonry, filler joist, clay pot, cast and wrought iron. The building had to be extensively investigated to understand its condition, fitness for reuse and, in some cases, capacity to extend.   Particular attention was paid to the impact of the fire and fire dousing in terms of movement, rot and corrosion. Repairs were carried out only where necessary after an extended period of drying and monitoring. The original council chamber roof was rebuilt as hybrid trusses (glulam and steel) to span the approximately 13 x 13m double-height volume below. The roof was prefabricated in just four pieces, built off the retained walls and installed in under two weeks.  A cross-laminated timber (CLT) covering creates the roof’s truncated pyramid shape. A new floor was added within the original massing of the west wing, utilising CLT slabs and a glulam ‘spine’ beam, creating unobstructed, exposed CLT ceilings across 7m bays at either side. The significant amount of retention and timber additions mean that the project scores very highly on benchmarks for embodied carbon, competitive beyond 2030 targets. Jonathan Flint, senior associate, Heyne Tillett Steel   Working detail The restoration presented a rare opportunity to reimagine a historic structure using sustainable, expressive materials. The original council chamber roof, destroyed by fire, was rebuilt as a hybrid CLT/glulam and steel ties structure, combining the aesthetic warmth of timber with the tensile strength of steel. The new roof had to clear-span approximately 13 x 13m over a double-height volume, and as the truncated pyramid structure was kept exposed, the increased volume of the space added a dramatic effect while introducing a contemporary character. Timber was selected not only for its sustainability credentials but also for its light  weight, crucial in minimising loads on the existing retained masonry. The trusses were prefabricated offsite in four large components, ensuring precision and reducing construction time and disruption on site. Once craned into position, they were set atop an existing concrete ring beam, a structural necessity installed after the fire to stabilise the perimeter walls in the absence of a roof. This ring beam now discreetly supports the new load paths. The combination of the timber structure in combination with the exposed brick and traditional plaster achieves a visually striking, materially honest reconstruction that honours the building’s historic proportions while firmly rooting it in contemporary sustainable practice. Julia Feix, director, Feix&Merlin Architects   Project data Location: Southwark, south London Start on site: February 2022 Completion: November 2024 Gross internal floor area: 5,000m2 Construction cost: £18.4 million Form of contract: Design and build Construction cost per m2: £4,500 Architect: Feix&Merlin Architects Client: General Projects Structural engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel M&E consultant: RED Engineering Quantity surveyor: Quartz Heritage architect: Donald Insall Associates (planning), Heritage Architecture (tender) Planning consultant: Rolfe Judd Landscape consultant: Town & Country Gardens Acoustic consultant: Sharps Redmore Transport consultant: Caneparo Associates Project manager: Quartz External lighting consultant: Atrium Specialist light feature: Barrisol Fit-out contractor: White Paper Art curation: Art Atelier Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement: Hunter Community space operator: WTH Community Space Principal designer: ORSA CDM co-ordinator: ORSA Approved building inspector: Sweco Building Control Main contractor: Conamar Embodied carbon: 52 kgCO2/m2
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  • What's the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears

    What’s the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears
    For a new study, physicists visualized and quantified the tear-producing droplets that get expelled from onions when they’re cut

    New research suggests using a thin, sharp knife and cutting slowly could help prevent crying while cutting onions.
    Pexels

    From wearing goggles to rubbing the knife with lemon juice, home cooks have come up with a wide variety of clever tricks to keep themselves from crying while cutting onions in the kitchen.
    Now, physicists have come up with another possible solution. Using a sharp knife while making slow, controlled cuts seems to be the best way to minimize the spray of tear-producing compounds in onions, according to a new study.
    The paper has been published on the preprint server arXiv and has not yet been peer reviewed.
    Scientists know why onions make us cry: When cut, these spherical alliums produce a chemical that stimulates the nerves responsible for producing tears. The volatile, irritating compound is called syn-propanethial-S-oxide.
    But, recently, a team of physicists decided to explore the underlying mechanisms at play when syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets released from onions. Using techniques known as high-speed particle tracking velocimetry and digital image correlation, they were able to visualize and count droplets as they were being expelled from cut onions, per IFLScience’s Russell Moul. They also studied the onions themselves, making note of strain and deformations on the flesh during chopping.
    To start, the team gathered fresh onions from local vendors, cut them into halves or quarters, then coated them in black spray paint.Then, they set up a high-speed camera and started chopping.
    “Cutting is a really strange process,” says Anne Juel, a physicist at the University of Manchester who was not involved with the research, to NewScientist’s Alex Wilkins. “We cut things with knives every day, but to cut something, you need to go down to the atomic scale.”
    Using a custom guillotine, the researchers experimented with cutting speeds ranging from 1.3 and 6.5 feet per second and blade thicknesses between 5 and 200 millimeters. They changed the steel blades manually and modified the speed by adjusting the height of the blade, which was released from above.
    By analyzing the footage from the high-speed camera, they could investigate the dynamics of tear-producing particles that sprayed out from the onion as it was cut. The thinner, sharper blades produced fewer droplets that moved more slowly and with less energy, they found.
    Meanwhile, the thicker, duller blades caused an explosion of high-speed particles that moved at up to 141 feet per second. This is because the dull blade initially bent the onion skin, which caused pressure to build up inside. When the blade finally sliced through, it released all that built-up energy and sent onion juice flying. Then, once the particles were in the air, they also fragmented into smaller pieces to create “an even more diffuse mist of all-natural mace,” writes Andrew Paul for Popular Science.
    The duller blades produced as much as 40 times more particles than the sharper blades. Faster cutting speeds produced up to four times as many droplets as slower speeds.
    This suggests that the best way to minimize tear-producing chemicals while chopping onions is to cut slowly with a thin, sharp knife. However, the researchers did not test this theory in their experiments, per NewScientist.

    Refrigerated onions released a “noticeably larger volume” of droplets compared to room-temperature onions, the researchers write.

    Pixabay

    Home cooks are often advised to chill their onions before cutting them to minimize crying. So, the researchers also experimented with onions that had been refrigerated for 12 hours. However, in their tests, the refrigerated onions released a “noticeably larger volume” of droplets compared to room-temperature onions.
    Preventing tears while cutting onions might seem like a trivial research topic. But the scientists say their work could also have important implications for food safety. The fragmented droplets that spray out of raw foods while they’re being cut could contribute to the spread of disease-causing pathogens, the researchers write in the paper.
    “Ejected droplets can come into direct contact with contaminated blades or carry surface-borne pathogens as they leave the food surface,” they write. “Lighter dropletsreadily suspended and can be transported by ambient air currents, thereby posing a potential risk for airborne transmission.”
    Keeping knife blades sharp, then, might be an easy way to help reduce food-borne illnesses, they posit.
    “Sharper blades reduce not only the number of droplets but also their speed and kinetic energy,” the scientists write in the paper. “This is particularly relevant for fruits and vegetables, which can carry food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella.”
    Many other recent research projects have attempted to use science to solve everyday problems. Scientists have visualized the plume of aerosolized particles ejected from commercial toilets during flushing, and some are even coming up with new urinal designs to help reduce urine splashing. And in the realm of enhancing food, Italian physicists came up with the perfect cacio e pepe recipe, while others have figured out the best way to make pour-over coffee and boil an egg.

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    What's the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears
    What’s the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears For a new study, physicists visualized and quantified the tear-producing droplets that get expelled from onions when they’re cut New research suggests using a thin, sharp knife and cutting slowly could help prevent crying while cutting onions. Pexels From wearing goggles to rubbing the knife with lemon juice, home cooks have come up with a wide variety of clever tricks to keep themselves from crying while cutting onions in the kitchen. Now, physicists have come up with another possible solution. Using a sharp knife while making slow, controlled cuts seems to be the best way to minimize the spray of tear-producing compounds in onions, according to a new study. The paper has been published on the preprint server arXiv and has not yet been peer reviewed. Scientists know why onions make us cry: When cut, these spherical alliums produce a chemical that stimulates the nerves responsible for producing tears. The volatile, irritating compound is called syn-propanethial-S-oxide. But, recently, a team of physicists decided to explore the underlying mechanisms at play when syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets released from onions. Using techniques known as high-speed particle tracking velocimetry and digital image correlation, they were able to visualize and count droplets as they were being expelled from cut onions, per IFLScience’s Russell Moul. They also studied the onions themselves, making note of strain and deformations on the flesh during chopping. To start, the team gathered fresh onions from local vendors, cut them into halves or quarters, then coated them in black spray paint.Then, they set up a high-speed camera and started chopping. “Cutting is a really strange process,” says Anne Juel, a physicist at the University of Manchester who was not involved with the research, to NewScientist’s Alex Wilkins. “We cut things with knives every day, but to cut something, you need to go down to the atomic scale.” Using a custom guillotine, the researchers experimented with cutting speeds ranging from 1.3 and 6.5 feet per second and blade thicknesses between 5 and 200 millimeters. They changed the steel blades manually and modified the speed by adjusting the height of the blade, which was released from above. By analyzing the footage from the high-speed camera, they could investigate the dynamics of tear-producing particles that sprayed out from the onion as it was cut. The thinner, sharper blades produced fewer droplets that moved more slowly and with less energy, they found. Meanwhile, the thicker, duller blades caused an explosion of high-speed particles that moved at up to 141 feet per second. This is because the dull blade initially bent the onion skin, which caused pressure to build up inside. When the blade finally sliced through, it released all that built-up energy and sent onion juice flying. Then, once the particles were in the air, they also fragmented into smaller pieces to create “an even more diffuse mist of all-natural mace,” writes Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The duller blades produced as much as 40 times more particles than the sharper blades. Faster cutting speeds produced up to four times as many droplets as slower speeds. This suggests that the best way to minimize tear-producing chemicals while chopping onions is to cut slowly with a thin, sharp knife. However, the researchers did not test this theory in their experiments, per NewScientist. Refrigerated onions released a “noticeably larger volume” of droplets compared to room-temperature onions, the researchers write. Pixabay Home cooks are often advised to chill their onions before cutting them to minimize crying. So, the researchers also experimented with onions that had been refrigerated for 12 hours. However, in their tests, the refrigerated onions released a “noticeably larger volume” of droplets compared to room-temperature onions. Preventing tears while cutting onions might seem like a trivial research topic. But the scientists say their work could also have important implications for food safety. The fragmented droplets that spray out of raw foods while they’re being cut could contribute to the spread of disease-causing pathogens, the researchers write in the paper. “Ejected droplets can come into direct contact with contaminated blades or carry surface-borne pathogens as they leave the food surface,” they write. “Lighter dropletsreadily suspended and can be transported by ambient air currents, thereby posing a potential risk for airborne transmission.” Keeping knife blades sharp, then, might be an easy way to help reduce food-borne illnesses, they posit. “Sharper blades reduce not only the number of droplets but also their speed and kinetic energy,” the scientists write in the paper. “This is particularly relevant for fruits and vegetables, which can carry food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella.” Many other recent research projects have attempted to use science to solve everyday problems. Scientists have visualized the plume of aerosolized particles ejected from commercial toilets during flushing, and some are even coming up with new urinal designs to help reduce urine splashing. And in the realm of enhancing food, Italian physicists came up with the perfect cacio e pepe recipe, while others have figured out the best way to make pour-over coffee and boil an egg. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. More about: Food Food Science New Research Physics #what039s #best #way #cut #onions
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    What's the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears
    What’s the Best Way to Cut Onions Without Crying? New Research Suggests That Thin, Sharp Blades Are Key to Minimizing Tears For a new study, physicists visualized and quantified the tear-producing droplets that get expelled from onions when they’re cut New research suggests using a thin, sharp knife and cutting slowly could help prevent crying while cutting onions. Pexels From wearing goggles to rubbing the knife with lemon juice, home cooks have come up with a wide variety of clever tricks to keep themselves from crying while cutting onions in the kitchen. Now, physicists have come up with another possible solution. Using a sharp knife while making slow, controlled cuts seems to be the best way to minimize the spray of tear-producing compounds in onions, according to a new study. The paper has been published on the preprint server arXiv and has not yet been peer reviewed. Scientists know why onions make us cry: When cut, these spherical alliums produce a chemical that stimulates the nerves responsible for producing tears. The volatile, irritating compound is called syn-propanethial-S-oxide. But, recently, a team of physicists decided to explore the underlying mechanisms at play when syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets released from onions. Using techniques known as high-speed particle tracking velocimetry and digital image correlation, they were able to visualize and count droplets as they were being expelled from cut onions, per IFLScience’s Russell Moul. They also studied the onions themselves, making note of strain and deformations on the flesh during chopping. To start, the team gathered fresh onions from local vendors, cut them into halves or quarters, then coated them in black spray paint. (This step made it easier for them to see and track what was happening when the alliums got cut.) Then, they set up a high-speed camera and started chopping. “Cutting is a really strange process,” says Anne Juel, a physicist at the University of Manchester who was not involved with the research, to NewScientist’s Alex Wilkins. “We cut things with knives every day, but to cut something, you need to go down to the atomic scale.” Using a custom guillotine, the researchers experimented with cutting speeds ranging from 1.3 and 6.5 feet per second and blade thicknesses between 5 and 200 millimeters. They changed the steel blades manually and modified the speed by adjusting the height of the blade, which was released from above. By analyzing the footage from the high-speed camera, they could investigate the dynamics of tear-producing particles that sprayed out from the onion as it was cut. The thinner, sharper blades produced fewer droplets that moved more slowly and with less energy, they found. Meanwhile, the thicker, duller blades caused an explosion of high-speed particles that moved at up to 141 feet per second. This is because the dull blade initially bent the onion skin, which caused pressure to build up inside. When the blade finally sliced through, it released all that built-up energy and sent onion juice flying. Then, once the particles were in the air, they also fragmented into smaller pieces to create “an even more diffuse mist of all-natural mace,” writes Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The duller blades produced as much as 40 times more particles than the sharper blades. Faster cutting speeds produced up to four times as many droplets as slower speeds. This suggests that the best way to minimize tear-producing chemicals while chopping onions is to cut slowly with a thin, sharp knife. However, the researchers did not test this theory in their experiments, per NewScientist. Refrigerated onions released a “noticeably larger volume” of droplets compared to room-temperature onions, the researchers write. Pixabay Home cooks are often advised to chill their onions before cutting them to minimize crying. So, the researchers also experimented with onions that had been refrigerated for 12 hours. However, in their tests, the refrigerated onions released a “noticeably larger volume” of droplets compared to room-temperature onions. Preventing tears while cutting onions might seem like a trivial research topic. But the scientists say their work could also have important implications for food safety. The fragmented droplets that spray out of raw foods while they’re being cut could contribute to the spread of disease-causing pathogens, the researchers write in the paper. “Ejected droplets can come into direct contact with contaminated blades or carry surface-borne pathogens as they leave the food surface,” they write. “Lighter droplets [are] readily suspended and can be transported by ambient air currents, thereby posing a potential risk for airborne transmission.” Keeping knife blades sharp, then, might be an easy way to help reduce food-borne illnesses, they posit. “Sharper blades reduce not only the number of droplets but also their speed and kinetic energy,” the scientists write in the paper. “This is particularly relevant for fruits and vegetables, which can carry food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella.” Many other recent research projects have attempted to use science to solve everyday problems. Scientists have visualized the plume of aerosolized particles ejected from commercial toilets during flushing, and some are even coming up with new urinal designs to help reduce urine splashing. And in the realm of enhancing food, Italian physicists came up with the perfect cacio e pepe recipe, while others have figured out the best way to make pour-over coffee and boil an egg. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. More about: Food Food Science New Research Physics
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