Run and twiddle

How can very simple organisms like bacteria find food? Oliver Selfridge’s wonderfully named “run and twiddle” behavioural strategy provides a very simple answer: set off in a random direction, run forward for as long as the availability of food keeps increasing, twiddle around to pick a new direction if the availability decreases, and so on.

To see run and twiddle in action, click “Forage” then click and drag on the canvas to add some food for the bacterium to find.