"Looking back, I realized I had never burped in my entire life," says Isabelle Zeidner, a 23-year-old Columbia social work grad student who lives in New York City. "I noticed it more as I got older.

“House burping” is the latest thing cluttering people’s feeds: short clips of people flinging open every window and door, announcing they’re “burping” their home to get rid of stale, germ-filled air.

Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. You’ve probably been in this situation: you just had a big lunch or a tall carbonated ...