Cooperating bacteria are vulnerable to slackers : Not Exactly Rocket Science
Game theory applies to all living organisms. I was recently saying this to a surprised undergraduate. Yet, it is true, as this blog post from Not Exactly Rocket Science illustrates: Cooperating bacteria are vulnerable to slackers : Not Exactly Rocket Science. It tells the story of a kind of bacterial colony in which some members freeload on the efforts of the others to make the environment more nourishing for all members of the colony. In a range of population sizes of the colony, the freeloading bacteria do so well that they multiply faster than the rest. This advantage dissipates, however, when they become so preponderant in the population of the colony that the whole colony is weakened. It seems like these bacteria have figured out how to deal with the “tragedy of the commons”, where people (or living creatures of any kind) overexploit a common resource because it is in the benefit of each individual to do so, even if it harms the group.
2 Comments »
Leave a comment
About me
My name is Dimitrios Diamantaras. I live in Abington, PA. I start reading too many books and finish too few of them. I also enjoy classical music, especially vocal, dabble in computer software a bit, and think about economics a lot (it’s my job).
Dimitrios' shared items in Google Reader- Tweetup and Hashtag Make the List of Top 2009 Words January 1, 2010
- My Year-End List of Decade-End Lists of Year/Decade-End Lists December 31, 2009
- Bruce Schneier on Aviation Security December 30, 2009
- How to: Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic December 30, 2009
- Security and Terrorism December 29, 2009
[...] blog post, from Not Exactly Rocket Science, caught my attention. I blogged about it in my more general-audience blog. Here I want to elaborate a little bit on the connection with [...]
Pingback by Bacteria that channel Elinor Ostrom « Economics and Mechanisms | November 15, 2009 |
[...] to Economics and Mechanisms, which titles its post "Bacteria that channel Elinor Ostrom," and CogiDDo ergo sum.] Leave a [...]
Pingback by Cooperation and cheating among bacteria « Knowledge Problem | November 18, 2009 |