Virtual Pandemic

Scientist simulate a pandemic in a virtual simulation to study results for dealing with. The goal was to come up with recommendations for how to contain possible pandemics, such as avian flu, in case of a break out. Information via Science Friday, more information here.

This article reminded me of an interesting virtual plague, called Corrupted Blood, I heard about in World of Warcraft. People's reactions to this were increasingly interesting, first that of the players, then of some social scientist studying this. Listen to the NPR article here, and a follow up article from Tufts University here, and the Lancet Article.

video via Los Alamos National Laboratory