Crowd crush: Could fluid dynamics save lives?
Scientists studying the controversial 'running of the bulls' discover unique crowd movements they hope could prevent overcrowding deaths
At the San Fermin festival, thousands of people gather in the Plaza Consistorial before the controversial running of the bulls. This backdrop provided researchers with a perfect setting to study the collective movements of dense crowds. The team were able to make out asymmetric orbital oscillations within the festival-goers, these movements were not driven by any external factors or by any individual action. They were appearing organically and happened year on year. In the future the team hope that their model will be used to monitor crowds and prevent crowd crushes like that seen at the Love Parade disaster of 2010.
Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00384-w
This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Emily Bates
