At WBEZ (and maybe at your office too?) it seems like a lot of folks get sick at almost exactly the same time.

But why?! Simple: People in our office are sick because sick people are in our office.

“I think that is probably the single biggest thing that we could do to reduce the incidence of a lot of diseases,” says Sarah Cobey, an evolutionary microbiologist from the University of Chicago. "Just self-quarantine." 

On this episode of Nerdette, Sarah takes a walk through our open office and guesses why people might be ill — and what we can do to stop the colds from spreading. She also talks about sneezes, vaccines and all the real heroes out there: people with good hygiene. 

Wash your hands, people! Sheesh!