Hi, you're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu.

Radiation scientist David Brenner believes he can stave off pandemics by harnessing the power and potential of ultraviolet light.

As we continue to battle the novel coronavirus, today's show features David Brenner talking with TED science curator David Beiello at TED 2020.

Is ultraviolet light safe and can it really be used to kill viruses and bacteria?

Brenner will shed some light.

Pun intended.

Please join me in welcoming David Brenner to share his idea for how we might stop the

spread of SARS-CoV-2. Take it away, David. Hey, good afternoon, David, and it's good to be back.

It's three years since my first talk. So let's talk for a few minutes about ultraviolet light.

So ultraviolet light or UV light is a type of light.

It's actually pretty similar to visible light,

but it actually has different wavelengths,

and that makes it invisible to our human eyes.

And it's been known for more than a hundred years, in fact,

that some wavelengths of UV light are incredibly efficient at killing viruses and bacteria also.

So actually, germicidal UV light is pretty commonly used these days to disinfect locations

like hospital operating rooms. But the problem we've always had is if people

are directly exposed to this conventional germicidal UV light, there are potential health hazards

to our eyes and to our skin. And that really greatly limits how and when we can use it. So what we'd

really love is a type of UV light,

which both kills viruses, but is also safe.

And about seven or eight years ago,

...