Unfortunately this does not parallel the smallpox eradication... smallpox was a very unique case as far as human diseases go. First, smallpox was eradicated through the use of vaccines (first produced over 200 years ago), which require only one exposure to prevent a person from getting infected. There were also numerous efforts to eradicate smallpox spanning almost 150 years, and culminating in the massive, coordinated effort from the WHO (World Health Organization, not the band) to eliminate smallpox from Africa and India in the 60s-70s.
To similarly eliminate HIV we would either need a similar vaccine, or to force every single HIV patient in the world (estimated 33-46 million) to adhere to a complicated anti-retroviral therapy for the remainder of their lives.
The situation for HIV better parallels tuberculosis, which can be effectively cured by common (and relatively inexpensive) antibiotics, but remains prevalent because the treatment regimen is quite long and requires strict patient compliance.
Also, since smallpox was eradicated by a very well studied vaccine, there was no patent holder to collect royalties...
In fact I would guess that there is no chance of the airplane burning up during re-entry... it's a matter of very basic physics. The reason the space shuttle gets hot is because it is big and heavy, and only minimally aerodynamic, thus the shuttle has a very high terminal velocity through the atmosphere. At those speeds the friction on the surface is huge, and the risk of burnup is high. A paper airplane, weighing a few grams but with a very large surface area will have a terminal velocity that is very VERY slow. You can perform this test yourself at your desk...
1) fold an airplane
2) stand on your chair
3) throw the airplane
4) watch to see if it catches fire
For those who will say that the terminal velocity will be higher at low atmospheric pressure, you're right. The airplane will be traveling much faster in the upper atmosphere as there is less resistance from air, however since there is less air there is also less friction, and thus less heating. You should be able to fold the airplane out of flash paper if you wanted without risk of fire.
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Unfortunately this does not parallel the smallpox eradication... smallpox was a very unique case as far as human diseases go. First, smallpox was eradicated through the use of vaccines (first produced over 200 years ago), which require only one exposure to prevent a person from getting infected. There were also numerous efforts to eradicate smallpox spanning almost 150 years, and culminating in the massive, coordinated effort from the WHO (World Health Organization, not the band) to eliminate smallpox from Africa and India in the 60s-70s.
To similarly eliminate HIV we would either need a similar vaccine, or to force every single HIV patient in the world (estimated 33-46 million) to adhere to a complicated anti-retroviral therapy for the remainder of their lives.
The situation for HIV better parallels tuberculosis, which can be effectively cured by common (and relatively inexpensive) antibiotics, but remains prevalent because the treatment regimen is quite long and requires strict patient compliance.
Also, since smallpox was eradicated by a very well studied vaccine, there was no patent holder to collect royalties...
In fact I would guess that there is no chance of the airplane burning up during re-entry... it's a matter of very basic physics. The reason the space shuttle gets hot is because it is big and heavy, and only minimally aerodynamic, thus the shuttle has a very high terminal velocity through the atmosphere. At those speeds the friction on the surface is huge, and the risk of burnup is high. A paper airplane, weighing a few grams but with a very large surface area will have a terminal velocity that is very VERY slow. You can perform this test yourself at your desk...
1) fold an airplane
2) stand on your chair
3) throw the airplane
4) watch to see if it catches fire
For those who will say that the terminal velocity will be higher at low atmospheric pressure, you're right. The airplane will be traveling much faster in the upper atmosphere as there is less resistance from air, however since there is less air there is also less friction, and thus less heating. You should be able to fold the airplane out of flash paper if you wanted without risk of fire.