While past research indicated closing the lid reduced bacterial pathogen spread, it doesn’t prevent aerosolized viruses from contaminating bathroom surfaces.
A public Q&A with two researchers at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University explored what existential risks humanity faces and how we could reduce them.
Bacterial diseases cause millions of deaths every year. Most of these bacteria were benign at some point in their evolutionary past, and we don’t always understand what turned them into disease-causing pathogens.