Reaping the Whirlwind? Human Disease from Exotic Pets

摘要

Edward Norton Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist, introduced in 1963 the idea that “one flap of a seagull's wings would be enough to alter the course of the weather forever.”nnThis principle, now known as the butterfly effect, reminds us that even the flap of a butterfly's wing could create an eddy that, when amplified within the chaotic motion of the atmosphere, could ultimately cause a large-scale disturbance far from the original event. The notion has been generalized into the principle that in complex systems, such as the weather, it is impossible to accurately identify and measure every single determining factor, and therefore impossible to predict long-term outcomes.