Bacteria often live within matrix-embedded communities, termed biofilms, which are now
understood to be a major mode of microbial life. The study of biofilms has revealed their vast …

Bacterial growth presents many beautiful phenomena that pose new theoretical challenges
to statistical physicists, and are also amenable to laboratory experimentation. This review …

The interspecies exchange of metabolites plays a key role in the spatiotemporal dynamics of
microbial communities. This raises the question of whether ecosystem-level behavior of …

Bacteria commonly live in dense and genetically diverse communities associated with
surfaces. In these communities, competition for resources and space is intense, and yet we …

The fight against cancer has drawn researchers from a wide variety of disciplines, ranging
from molecular biology to physics, but the perspective of an ecological theorist has been …

Dense and diverse microbial communities are found in many environments. Disentangling
the social interactions between strains and species is central to understanding microbes and …

In nature, most bacteria live in surface-attached sedentary communities known as biofilms.
Biofilms are often studied with respect to bacterial interactions. Many cells inhabiting biofilms …

The human gut harbours a large and genetically diverse population of symbiotic microbes
that both feed and protect the host. Evolutionary theory, however, predicts that such genetic …

Mutualistic interactions benefit both partners, promoting coexistence and genetic diversity.
Spatial structure can promote cooperation, but spatial expansions may also make it hard for …

Dense microbial groups such as bacterial biofilms commonly contain a diversity of cell types
that define their functioning. However, we have a limited understanding of what maintains, or …