by Rachel and Elie Diner — One of the most im­por­tant ques­tions for any mi­crobe is where their next meal will come from. For us, whether to make your own meal or eat food pre­pared by oth­ers is a com­mon, per­haps daily, dilemma. In the nat­ural world, the dine-in vs. take-out dilemma is played out in a dif­fer­ent form: namely, do or­gan­isms make their own food by means such as pho­to­syn­the­sis, or do they rely on con­sum­ing other or­gan­isms...