---
title: "Escherichia coli · Animals and other organisms · Entities · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/entities/ecoli
description: "A single cell with no neurons. It steers toward food and has a chemical memory that lasts a few seconds."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

[Entities](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/entities) › Animals and other organisms › No neurons

# Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli

A single cell with no neurons. It steers toward food and has a chemical memory that lasts a few seconds.

Neurons

0 measured  · no neurons (single-celled bacterium)

## Evidence

* Chemotaxis uses a short-term molecular memory. The cell compares current attractant concentration with the level a few seconds earlier, through methylation of its receptors. That's a temporal comparison, not a nervous system.  
Segall JE, Block SM, Berg HC (1986) Temporal comparisons in bacterial chemotaxis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83(23):8987-8991\. doi:10.1073/pnas.83.23.8987.

In the trees

[Stop the free rider · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=e-pubgoods)

Assess it against the published criteria