The team examined historical documents such as farmers’ reports and news articles from 1843 to 1845, which led to the devastating famine. By searching the documents for keywords such as “potato blight” and “potato blight,” they were able to map the pathogen’s spread in the northeastern United States before it spread to Europe.
But the researchers didn’t stop there. They also delved into the world of modern social media by analyzing tweets containing keywords associated with the recent outbreak from 2012 to 2022. This “social media analysis” revealed something interesting: Most Twitter discussions were driven by scientists sharing their research, rather than ordinary citizens commenting directly on the disease.
But the analysis confirmed that areas last affected by the disease in the 1840s continue to struggle with the disease today. Additionally, a Google Ngram search revealed a surprising discovery: an increase in late wilt reports in the 1950s. Further investigation revealed a significant disease outbreak in tomatoes in the United States after World War II; This may indicate the emergence of a new species.
The team plans to expand their work in the future and apply these data-driven methods to monitor other plant diseases and pests.
Source: Ferra
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