Microbes set up their own markets, comparing bids for
commodities, hoarding to obtain a better price, and generally behaving in ways
more commonly associated with Wall Street than the microscopic world.
The idea that people make calculated decisions that allow
them to obtain the most goods with the smallest amount of effort — a complex
hypothesis called ‘economic man’ for short — often has been challenged. People
sometimes make irrational decisions, they rarely possess sufficient information
to make the best decision, and they sometimes act against their own economic
self-interest, critics say.