"Where’s George?" Web game that monitors geographic circulation of dollar bills used to forecast diffusion of a virus

Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara have used the "Where’s George" website to create a model to help forecast the spread of diseases among humans. "Where’s George" tracks the movement of dollar bills across the country by letting people log on and input the serial number of the bill and zip code where it was found.

Since money, like viruses, is transported from person to person, place to place, researchers feel that this model is the best way to track the movement of people. The model shows that money usually travels locally, but there is a small percentage that travels quickly across country.

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