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The scaling laws of human travel

Author

Listed:
  • D. Brockmann

    (Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation
    University of Göttingen)

  • L. Hufnagel

    (University of California)

  • T. Geisel

    (Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation
    University of Göttingen
    Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience)

Abstract

Another day another dollar The website wheresgeorge.com invites its users to enter the serial numbers of their US dollar bills and track them across America and beyond. Why? “For fun and because it had not been done yet”, they say. But the dataset accumulated since December 1998 has provided the ideal raw material to test the mathematical laws underlying human travel, and that has important implications for the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Analysis of the trajectories of over half a million dollar bills shows that human dispersal is described by a ‘two-parameter continuous-time random walk’ model: our travel habits conform to a type of random proliferation known as ‘superdiffusion’. And with that much established, it should soon be possible to develop a new class of models to account for the spread of human disease.

Suggested Citation

  • D. Brockmann & L. Hufnagel & T. Geisel, 2006. "The scaling laws of human travel," Nature, Nature, vol. 439(7075), pages 462-465, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7075:d:10.1038_nature04292
    DOI: 10.1038/nature04292
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