GoKawiilHow E. coli senses and navigates its chemical environment
A long-form explainer details the biology of chemotaxis, the process by which a single E. coli cell detects attractive chemicals and decides whether to swim forward or tumble to change direction. The piece walks through receptor proteins, membrane signaling, chemical modifications that act as memory, and the flagellar motor that drives movement, framing the bacterium as a sophisticated molecular computer rather than a simple organism.