In this season of flus and colds galore, it's not uncommon to see people wincing away from congested coughs and sneezes. But Singapore scientists are looking into other activities – laughing and singing, for example – that can spread sickness just as, if not more, easily.

With a giant mirror and a high speed camera, the researchers are able to observe, in real time, a person's spray of liquid droplets when coughing, sneezing, laughing, and talking. They hope their observations will aid in updating infection control guidelines, reports Fox News in How Far Does Your Sneeze Really Travel?.

Using volunteers, team leader Julian Tang, a virologist and consultant with Singapore's National University Hospital and his colleagues will study the velocity and distance of exhaled airflows, or plumes, produced by coughs and sneezes, and even laughing, crying, singing, whistling, talking, snoring, and breathing. In addition, they will evaluate how effective standard preventive measures like sneezing into a fist or a tissue are.

The upshots of such research not only help prevent the spread of common sicknesses like winter colds, but can also help guide recommendations for how far apart to place hospital beds or how to stall the progression of the next pandemic.

So far, the researchers have found that whistling and laughing appear to spread infection very effectively. Tang says, "Laughing produces a surprisingly strong, diffuse, exhaled plume, and I suspect that singing (especially trained operatic singing) will produce an even stronger, more penetrating plume."

As always, additional pieces of the puzzle are necessary to put together the whole picture. As Tang puts it, transmission rates depend on many other factors including "virus survival and host immune responses - which other teams are studying."