Earlier I discussed the money tracking service of WheresGeorge.Com. It was meant as a lark by a bunch of friends, but now it’s being put to a serious purpose.
How’s that?
Well, dollar bills don’t just walk around the countryside.
Not unless it’s the walking money from the planet Ventura in the Legion of Super-Heroes, I mean.
Here on Earth, dollar bills go places because they are carried by people.
That means that if you can track the money, you can–kinda, sorta–track the people. The motions of money tell you something about the motions of people.
Which is why the serial numbers of bills can be used to catch criminals.
How else might such a "follow the money" approach be used?
How could it be put into the service of SCIENCE?
Well, how about this: If you understand more about the casual, random connections that people make as they move around then it could tell you something about things that people carry around with them and exchange with other people . . . like dollar bills . . . or germs.
And that is what some scientists are doing.
They’re using the Where’s George money tracking system to model human travel and interactions as a way of producing better models of DISEASE PROPAGATION.
And, of course, if we have better models of disease propagation then we can better predict what diseases will do and come up with better strategies for fighting them.
YEE-HAW!
Go! Humans!
Fight! Those! Germs!
(Mr. Monk will be pleased.)
(Agent Mulder may not be.)
