43
thousand
Number of transnational corporations
analyzed in new study
40
percent
Monetary value of corporations studied owned by
just 147 companies
Financial world dominated by a few
‘Superentity’ controls more than one-third of global wealth
NEWS BRIEFS
By Rachel Ehrenberg
Psychling dynamics
Although cyclist Alberto Contador
won the 2009 Tour de France, he
was criticized for defecting from his
teammates and sprinting ahead
when tactics demanded patience.
New research suggests that
criticism was on the mark. When
strong riders break away from their
companions, it helps the defector
but hurts the team, researchers
report in an upcoming issue of
Complexity. University of Colorado
Boulder scientists and a sports
psychologist developed a bike racing model incorporating variables
such as cooperation, defection,
speed, distance and effort. The
model nicely captures real racing
dynamics: below-average riders fare
better as defectors, above-average
riders as cooperators and when a
strong rider does defect, it harms
the team. — Rachel Ehrenberg
Traveling germs
Homebodies don’t rack up the
same miles as frequent ;iers, but
most models of how infectious
diseases spread treat all travel-
ers the same. A new model takes
these differences into account.
The research, published online
August 8 in Physical Review X,
suggests that most models vastly
overestimate a disease’s spread.
And the frequency of long trips
isn’t the only factor in;uencing
whether a disease hops to another
continent. The durations of those
trips is crucial as well, reports
the team from the Max Planck
Institute for Dynamics and Self-
organization, the University of
Göttingen in Germany, and North-
western University.
— Rachel Ehrenberg
www.sciencenews.org
September 24, 2011 | SCIENCE NEWS | 13
