Head 'em up!: Loading into an airplane could improve in the future.Courtesy FredAn astrophysicist of all people has come up with a much more efficient way to load an airplane. The method most commonly used - loading from the back to the front - is, as you might expect, the most inefficient. But using computer simulations, Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist who works at the Fermi National Laboratory outside of Chicago, has come up with a new method that's much improved. It involves loading one side of the plane at a time, filling first the window seats, then the middle seats, and finally the aisle seats. Dr. Steffen's method is a variation of an earlier studied method known as the Wilma method, but nearly doubles the boarding speed. Steffen's results appear in the Journal of Air Transport Management. You can also read more about it on the BBC website.