Trinity College Dublin immunologist Professor Luke O'Neill has said keeping watered plants indoors could be a defence against the spread of the coronavirus.
He told Pat Kenny that the next fight will be waged in the humidity levels of rooms.
He explained that viruses travel easier in dry air than moist air, and that is where house plants can play their part.
"It turns out that dry air is always bad for us, because viruses love dry air and the common cold spreads in dry air more than moist air.
"And then secondly if you're in a room and the air is very dry, your nose and your upper airways dry out and viruses love that - they can latch on more and get into your body more."
"That's why when you go indoors in winter these colds and flu spread more - because the air is quite dry - as well as there being poor ventilation.
"So what this means is... humidity has become a key thing, and the big debate now is shifting."
"Ventilation is important indoors, of course, but you've got to try and keep the relative humidity up as well cause the virus seems to thrive on dry air.
"So what they're going to recommend next Pat, and this is a strong recommendation, you need to have plants in your room with water in them - or even a bowl of water will help keep the air a bit moist.
"But best of all is to buy a humidifier to keep the air humid, and that will decrease the spread of the virus."
"The hottest places are often the most humid - as long as there's water around, shall we say, this will increase the moisture of the air content - especially if the room is a bit warmer.
"So just having a slightly warmer room with a source of water in a plant or in a bowl of water will help the air stay a bit moist."
"When your nose dries out, or your upper airway dries out, you make less mucus - the stuff that makes you sniffle and so on.
"Mucus is a really good way to get rid of viruses, because it traps the virus and then you cough it out.
"In keeping the airway moist and your nose moist, the virus slips - if you know what I mean - it can't get in".
"If it goes down to 20% relative humidity you're in trouble - it's got to be 40% to 60%".
"Ventilation has a massive effect on this, by the way.
"So what's happening really is the engineers are saying 'Look, get the ventilation right, but make sure the relative humidity is at a certain level as well'.
"And that's a really good combination, then, to keep a room safe and to stop this spreading all over the room."
