▶For more on these stories, visittime.com/ideasIT’S A QUINTESSENTIAL IN-FLIGHT RIDDLE:
If smoking is banned on planes, what’s with
all the ashtrays?
U.S. airlines started banning smoking back
in the late 1980s. By the end of 1990, lighting
up was prohibited on all domestic flights under
six hours in duration, and since 2000 the smok-
ing ban has been pretty much ubiquitous inter-
nationally. So does that mean the planes we’re
flying on are all super-old? Thankfully not.
“You’re not allowed to smoke, but some
people still do it,” a cabin attendant on a
Cathay Pacific flight bound for London said,
adding that she catches somebody about once
every six months. “So if you do smoke, there
has to be a safe place to stub it out.”
That safe place is emphatically not the
lavatory’s waste bin, which is likely to be
filled with flammable tissues. And there’sgood reason for airlines to be cautious.
In 1973, 123 passengers were killed on a plane
traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when
the pilot made an emergency landing after
the cabin filled with smoke. The suspected
cause? A cigarette. These days, ashtrays in
bathrooms are listed as a legal requirement
for “minimum equipment” by the Federal
Aviation Administration. And it’s not only the
FAA that mandates ashtrays onboard: in 2009
a Mexico-bound British Airways flight was
briefly grounded after it was discovered not to
have any ashtrays.
So ashtrays on planes are not relics.
But neither are they an invitation to smoke;
rather, they’re there because the FAA does
not trust you not to. —JOSEPH HINCKS▶For more on these stories, visittime.com/historyHISTORY
Why there’s still an ashtray on your airplaneBIG IDEA
Switzerland’s new medical drones
During a medical emergency, every second matters—including the ones spent driving samples
to and from external labs for testing. But what if they could be flown instead? That’s the idea
behind a new fleet of delivery drones, developed by California-based Matternet for deployment in
Switzerland. When lab technicians are done testing a sample, they simply deposit it at a nearby
drone-docking station; then the drone takes off on a predetermined route back to a hospital,
flying far above traffic. The initiative, developed in partnership with the national postal service, is
set to launch in several Swiss cities by the end of the year. But Matternet has grander ambitions.
If the tech works, it may well deploy it for e-commerce delivery and more.—Julia ZorthianTHIS
JUST INDATAA roundup of new and
noteworthy insights
from the week’s most
talked-about studies:1
MOODS CAN BE
CONTAGIOUS
A study inRoyal Society
Open Sciencefound
that kids whose friends
suffered from bad
moods were more likely
to report bad moods
themselves, and the
opposite held true
for those with happy
friends.2
SICK PETS CAN
AFFECT THEIR
OWNERS’ MENTAL
HEALTH
A study inVeterinary
Record of 238 dog
and cat owners found
that those with sick
pets had more stress,
anxiety and depressive
symptoms—all closely
tied to the burden of
caregiving—than those
with healthy pets.3
COUPLES DEVELOP
SIMILAR TASTES
IN FOOD
A study inAppetite
found that the longer
two people are in a
relationship, the more
closely their food and
smell preferences
align, likely because
the dining customs of
each person influence
the other’s.—J.Z.ZUCKERBERG: STEVE JENNINGS—BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE/GETTY IMAGES; BIG IDEA: MATTERNET