To test their theory, the two astronomers studied flu outbreaks in British boarding schools. They found that flu did not spread from dormitory to dormitory, as one might think. Instead, out-breaks began randomly in different dormitories, as they might if they had been caused by organisms they might if they had been caused by organisms drifting through the atmosphere. In addition a flu epidemic in Sardinia in 1948 followed the same pattern.

Four salvos later, more than half of the Eurisko ships had been sunk but their commander, Douglas B. Lent, was preparing to accept the enemy's offer of surrender. Despite its huge losses, the lumbering Eurisko fleet had destroyed all but one of the opposition's highly vaunted high-tech ships. The battle had ended.