Over the past few weeks, the N95 respirator has gone from gear worn by people working in hospitals or on industrial sites to something you see your neighbor wearing when they're walking their dog.
The tight-fitting mask with a pliable metal piece near the nose does a lot more than provide a protective barrier for the mouth and nose.
According to The University of Tennessee, it "uses an electric field to ionize the neutral air to generate ions and electrons, which then charge the nonwoven fibers through field and induction."
The N95 respirator is one of the biggest heros of the COVID-95 pandemic because it has prevented countless people from spreading and contracting the deadly virus. It has also made it possible for healthcare workers to work closely with people who've been infected without contracting the virus themselves.
The "N" in the respirator's name stands for "not resistant to oil," and "95" is because it has the ability to remove at least 95% of submicron particles, such as viruses, from the air.
via Alamosa County Public Health / Flickr
It was invented by material scientist and engineer Peter Tsai and his team at the University of Tennessee in 1992 in an attempt to develop electrostatic filtration technology. The respirator would go on to be used in industrial settings until it was later discovered to be effective at preventing the spread of diseases in medical settings.
The N95 received a U.S. patent in 1995.
Tsai is a world-renowned expert in nonwoven fabrics and was a professor at the University of Tennessee's Material Sciences and Engineering Department for 35 years before retiring last year.
However, his retirement was short-lived.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he's come out of retirement to find new ways of sterilizing his respirators so the single-use masks can be used for longer periods of time.
"I just want to help people, and just do my job," Tsai said in an interview with NPR.
via Red River College / Flickr
The N95 masks are in short supply across the world, so many people are using chemicals such as alcohol and bleach to sanitize them for reuse. But that can cause them to deteriorate and become ineffective.
So researchers from around the globe have been filling Tsai's inbox for suggestions on how to sterilize their masks.
Among those who've been experimenting on ways to sterilize the masks is a collective known as N95DECON that's been working with heat, a form of ultraviolet light, and hydrogen peroxide vapor.
Maha Krishnamoorthi, vice president of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, calls Tsai that a "rock-star" and says he's become the "man of the hour" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"And he said, 'No — I'm man of the minute,'" Tsai told Krishnamoorthi according to NPR. Tsai believes that the people wearing his masks are the real heroes.
"The front-line hospital workers — they are heroes," Tsai said. "I'm just trying to help them to wear the mask."
- Scientists are cruelly testing coronavirus remedies on lab monkeys ›
- Queens Hospital UK doctor advises on potential lifesaving ... ›
- Here's to another unsung hero of the coronavirus pandemic—the ... ›
- Meet the world’s first biodegradable plant-based face mask - Upworthy ›
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.