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Published online 19 January 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070115-13
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Crowd researchers make pilgrimage safer
The science of pedestrian motion meets the annual Hajj in Mecca.
The annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, known as the Hajj, has on occasion been marred by deaths from trampling in the huge crowds that gather for the rituals. But scientists studying how pedestrians move around think they have made such crowd disasters much less likely.
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