New Direction in my Research

So, as I'm putting the final touches on my outline that's due TOMORROW I realize that I want to take my research in another direction... not a completely different direction, but different enough that I don't have time to do the research and writing necessary to modify my current outline. So, the outline will mostly reflect the same ideas that I've already expressed here with a few additions and in a different format, but the next iteration will focus on:

HOW DOES HUMAN MIGRATION AFFECT DISEASE SPREAD?

When I really got down to it, focusing on commuting patterns in the US and the diseases that are spread that way we're really mostly dealing with colds and the flu and stuff like that. You're not very likely to catch a life-threatening disease from someone on your bus on the way to work or from someone in the cubicle next to yours. The thing about studying a certain population and disease is that rarely are new diseases introduced that cause a real need for concern. Bio Terrorism is a real threat, but I'm tired of hearing about terrorism and I'm much less interested in doing a project on it. However, if you look at human travel in a much larger scale (migration in history) you can find all sorts of instances where susceptible populations are introduced to diseases that have very serious consequences. Today I found a "History of Transportation Timeline" that goes all the way back to 3500 BC with the invention of the fixed-wheel cart (http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/wheel.htm). As transportation became easier, faster, and more available people who were once relatively isolated became mobile. They began to venture farther and farther from their homes and with them they carried all sorts of diseases, eventually introducing them to populations and ecosystems that had never been exposed.

In the end I think I can show a correlation between emergence of particular diseases and mass migration of one group or another that likely introduced the diseases. Depending on how long this project needs to be I can also look ahead and introduce the idea of GIS aiding in creating models for potential disease spread. I feel much better looking ahead at this research than I do continuing with where I'm currently headed.