Selfishness is not the best survival trait

A very interesting article in Financial Times about "co-operation" and "Cheating" in nature, maybe we humans we should learn from it...

"Winners never cheat and cheats never win, so the saying goes. And now there is a scientific evidence to support that adage, at least when it comes to microorganism.

To conduct the study scientists set up a series of competitions between two series of yeast. In one corner were the 'co-operators' which produce energy efficiently by taking in sugar slowly and fully converting into energy.

On the other side were the 'cheaters'which produce energy by taking all the sugar they can and only partially converting into energy - a technique that reduces the resources available for the group as a whole. The researchers found that the cheats accumulated toxins as a direct result of taking in resources more quickly that they could digest them, which limited the level of energy they could derive from the sugar."