Unicellular diatoms are able to adapt their behavior to different external stimuli based on an evaluation of their own needs. This was discovered by scientists of the Friedrich Schiller University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, together with partners from Belgium. The algae depend on nutrients in order to reproduce. However, they also need reproductive partners, which they find by following pheromone traces. In experiments, Seminavis robusta diatoms directed their orientation either toward nutrient sources or reproductive partners, depending on the degree of starvation and the need to mate. This represents a primitive form of behavioral biology. The study is published in The ISME Journal.