Mine Social Media Posts to Predict Flu

Researchers used Twitter searches for nonflu words associated with behavior to predict flu outbreaks two weeks in advance.

Hi, I’m Scientific American podcast editor Steve Mirsky. And here’s a short piece from the April issue of the magazine, in the section we call Advances: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Science, Technology and Medicine:

#Flu by Rachel Berkowitz

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Rachel Berkowitz is a freelance science writer and a corresponding editor for Physics Magazine. She is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Eastsound, Wash.