The Baffling Intelligence of a Single Cell

Explore-Exploit in E-Coli

The basic idea is this: E. coli “smells” chemicals it’s attracted to with a set of nose-like receptors and decides how to swim. Depending on what it senses, it can either use its flagellar tails to swim forward—this is known as a “run”—or it can spin in a random direction (a “tumble”). By running when the getting is…

Oct 19, 2026 1

• explore exploit
• random walk