The toilet as we know it has existed in much the same form for centuries. So where do you start if you are charged with reinventing it?
For more than a decade, Shannon Yee1 has been working on this – perhaps surprisingly – difficult problem. A professor at Georgia Institute of Technology2, a top-tier public research university based in the US, Yee is full of stories about what’s required to undertake such a challenge. These include running a series of tests nicknamed ‘Will it flush?’ to discover what happens when foreign objects such as plastic bags or toy cars go down the toilet, or “accidentally shooting feces 20 feet in the air and splattering it on the ceiling,” he says.
“What I love about this story is that everybody poops. It’s very relatable. But it’s also a very serious topic.”