Knowing R0 number or knowing R. Rao

Knowing R0 number or knowing R. Rao

In 1976 Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” as a combination of memory and gene.

E. Moro and JL Iribarren of IBM used models of infection to examine how digital information (email) spreads. This was in 2009 before all of the social media exploded. Nevertheless, one important outcome is that people vary in their “infectiousness”. Sometimes it’s not content it’s who gets “infected”.

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jul 17;103(3):038702. Epub 2009 Jul 14.

Impact of human activity patterns on the dynamics of information diffusion.

Iribarren JL, Moro E.

http://goo.gl/fWg2D

Summary in NewScientist http://goo.gl/MOxK7

Interesting Interview between Susan Blackmore and Wired.com http://goo.gl/vVGAW

Blackmore gave a TED talk on memes (2008).

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html

From the Wired interview:

Wired: What about things that get rooted in popular culture despite an aversion to them and a desire for them to go away? For example, how is it possible that the Paris Hilton meme hasn’t reached the end of its shelf life yet?

Blackmore: Presumably because it presses enough human buttons — you know, sex, greed, celebrity. Some memes will succeed because they make you talk about them even though you think they’re bad. For example, a horrible story about murder or torture upsets you. And one of the ways you try to cope with the upset is to tell somebody else, to share the burden, and that way it spreads and upsets more people, even though you wish it wouldn’t.

Which reminds me of the #ReptileThursday meme where some guy used the hashtag to complain about #ReptileThursday . Since #ReptileThursday was trending, his comment showed up there and people piled on more, in response to his comment.

BTW, if you have me circled then you know I ♥ memes. What’s your R0 number (basic reproduction number in epidemiology studies, memes in this case)?

#ScienceSunday ScienceSunday curated by Allison Sekuler Robby Bowles and Rajini Rao