In shipping, efficiency is everything. Take the shortest (safe) route between two points. Offload cargo as quickly as possible to the person who will pay you the most. Pick up your next load as fast as you can and start it all over. But the effective management of these shipping vessels' routes, and the kinds of voyages that really are most efficient, has gone understudied by an industry that can be set in its ways, according to István Z. Kiss, a professor of network science at Northeastern University London.