This spooky computer simulation shows how a hypothetical epidemic spreads from Atlanta to the rest of the world via the global air transportation network. It is based on the research of Dirk Brockmann and his fellow researchers at Humboldt University in Berlin, who have developed a new model for understanding the spread of contagions that is based on “effective distance.” In the simulation, the disease spreads rapidly to airports connected to Atlanta. So from an effective distance standpoint, Paris might be closer than a remote town in Montana (when geographically the opposite is true). For more on the work of Brockmann and his team, see this Fast Company Co.Exist article.
video via Dirk Brockmann
