In 2001, The National Institute of Justice released a report on drug epidemics and warned of a new marijuana epidemic that had begun in the 1990s. Through extensive research, the Institute discovered an alarming rise in marijuana usage among the nation’s youth. This trend could have serious implications, including precipitating an increase in so-called “hard […]

Back when I used to have free time, I watched the VH1 show Best Week Ever, in which comedic panelists would go through the obscure news of the week and at the end decide who or what was having their 15 minutes of fame, their “best week ever”. My vote for this week would […]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/health/research/29heart.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=login
This article from the New York Times titled “Genes Explain Race Disparity in Response to a Heart Drug” explains why some heart patients experience no improvement in their condition when taking beta blockers. As it turns out, there is a certain kind of gene variant in up to 40% of blacks and up to 2% […]

In class we discussed network dynamics in terms of “diffusion of innovation” and behavior changing dynamics within a population setting. This model can hold true to a host of different innovations and behaviors- neither of which must be positive or negative influence on the population.
An article that I came across that I found particularly interesting […]

It has been frequently mentioned in class that the spread of disease, technology, or ideas may be modeled by social networks. In addition to those aspects, however, it was found by the National Institute of Health (NIH) that the spread of obesity can also be modeled by social networks, such as the social influence of […]

There is an interesting article in the MIT technology review about a research project called “Reality Mining” that was tangentially related to our discussion of disease today in lecture. In partnership with Nokia Research, Nathan Eagle, a doctoral student, and his advisor, Sandy Pentland use mobile phones to collect data about user behavior. This data […]

Networks through Vaccination
 NY Times Article/Letter
Most people would think, flu season is coming up, time to get a flu vaccination.  It’s natural to want to be protected from the latest or upcoming epidemics, such as the flu or measles.  Unfortunately that is not the case with everyone.  Some adults are not willing to pay for vaccinations […]

Digital health records that are easily accessible by medical professionals and patients are slowly coming into existence. The network effect of this information sharing will lead to better tracking of medical conditions, better diagnosis by doctors who would have access to more complete information, and better patient self-care since they have more information about their […]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-doping-dilemma
The Scientific American article “The Doping Dilemma” written by Michael Shermer tells how game theory helps to explain the pervasive abuse of drugs in cycling, as well as baseball and other sports. As we have studied, game theory is the study of how players choose strategies in order to maximize their payoffs by anticipating […]

As discussed in class, cascades can be found in all sorts of life activities. Often when a person does something, he or she can influence his or her neighbor to do the same thing, and before we know it everyone around them has also chosen to do the same thing. This idea can be applied […]