Scientists could learn a lot about the way natural systems work from the decidedly unnatural world of the Internet, according to research published earlier this year.

Two Canadian ecologists at the University of Windsor in Ontario have been studying the way that Internet viruses proliferate to better determine the progress of a real-world intruder -- the spiny water flea, an insect that's native to Russia that has been invading the Canadian lake system for two decades.

By Karen Epper Hoffman at Technology Review.

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