
Single-cell pond organisms known as stentors provide clues into what may have sparked single cells to assemble into more complex, multicellular life forms as life emerged on Earth some 3.8 billion years ago. Nature Physics published a new insight about a possible driver of this key step in evolution — the fluid dynamics of cooperative feeding. Lead author of the study is Shashank Shekhar, assistant professor of physics at Emory University. Co-authors include scientists from Providence College; the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts; Roger Williams University; the University of California, San Francisco; and Ohio Wesleyan University.