Everyone knows that Moore’s law says that computers get cheaper at an exponential rate. What is not as well known is that many other technologies that have nothing to do with computers obey a similar law. Costs for DNA sequencing, some forms of renewable energy, chemical processes and consumer goods have also dropped at an exponential rate, even if the rates vary and are typically slower than for computers.
A new approach to exploring the spread of contagious diseases or the latest celebrity gossip has been tested using London’s street and underground networks. Results from the new approach could help to predict when a contagion will spread through space as a simple wave (as in the Black Death) and when long-range connections, such as air travel, enable it to seemingly jump over long distances and emerge in locations far from an initial outbreak.