A pandemic such as bird flu could kill tens of millions. But with enough computational power, it's possible to simulate this crisis in sufficient detail to identify the most-effective responses. That's the premise behind CIVA, a startup spun off from the famed Los Alamos National Laboratory. It touts its new software, EpiCast, as the first and only to model pandemics. And CIVA sells the package on a sliding scale: It's making EpiCast available to any government or company, charging based on ability to pay. "Finally," CIVA exec Justin Kees laughs, "we've got something good out of the bomb makers at Los Alamos."
--Alan Deutschman
