Hypothetical models examine spread of disease in age of modern transportation

The Atlantic Cities profiles the work of Dirk Brockmann, a theoretical physicist and professor of complex systems at Northwestern University, and other researchers who are examining how modern transportation, such as air travel, affect the spread of disease globally. By using hypothetical models based on air travel distance and probability, researchers are beginning to be able to better predict how and when disease might spread, based on other factors such as "infection rates, disease dynamics, seasonality, or the age structure of infected populations," the Atlantic Cities writes. "The idea that disease travels through airport networks is not a novel one to epidemiologists. But the discovery that pandemic patterns have not changed so much after all in the last 500 years is," the news service states. The article includes visual representations of the hypothetical models (Badger, 2/25).