Internet viruses used to beat real live pests

The way viruses spread on the internet has been helping ecologists work out how pests are spreading in the real world.

Jim Muirhead and Professor Hugh MacIsaac, ecologists at the University of Windsor in Ontario, have been using network theory to work out how the Russian spiny water flea will travel through Canada's lakes.

According to the two ecologists' theory, the lakes are akin to interconnected nodes in a network, with some open to infection by computer viruses - or, in this case, the spiny water flea. The spread of the water flea by boats and other craft mimics the spread of viruses by email, the research states, and can help the scientists identify which lakes are likely to become infection hubs from which the flea will spread.

The pair believe two main characteristics of fast-spreading viruses will indicate the likely points of the infection from the tiny waterborne crustacean - outbound traffic is mostly to uninfected areas and the amount of outgoing traffic is very high.

The two characteristics were found in one particular Canadian lake, Lake Muskoka, which served to infect 39 others.

The research was published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology.

It's not the first time scientists have turned to the world of internet menaces to help research.

Australian researchers are currently working with Microsoft's research arm on using anti-spam techniques including data-mining and machine-learning to help identify the genetic patterns that underpin the HIV virus.