Brew-mance: Intellect and relationships

Can your pint make calculations? Surprisingly, cells and bacteria can make complex decisions with basically the same ingredients as the contents of your beer. They navigate mazes, recognize and react to dangers, and show complex social dynamics - no nervous system, brain, or processor needed. Chemical reactions between DNA, proteins and other molecules are responsible for their problem-solving skills. How does this simple intelligence compare to computers, or even our brains? Can we recreate this "chemical intelligence" in the lab, and why are scientists (including me!) trying to do so?

Every summer, common terns seek a mate for the breeding season. Like many migratory seabirds, they prefer pairing with a previous partner over courting a new mate. Yet established couples are not more successful parents than newly formed pairs. Furthermore, waiting too long for a late-arriving mate could jeopardise a tern’s chances of breeding that year. So why bother waiting at all? Using a simulation model, we investigate the evolution of fidelity in long-lived, migratory birds, and show that when older birds make better parents, an old mate is worth the wait.