When Laziness Pays: Math explains how cooperation and cheating evolve

Researchers have proposed a solution to a long-standing evolutionary conundrum: Why do populations of identical organisms sometimes split into two strains, cooperators and cheaters?

Cooperation and cheating, inescapable parts of human existence, also occur in a wide range of other creatures, down to the tiniest. For instance, in a yeast population, some cells produce the enzymes required to digest sugars, while other cells mooch off their enzyme-producing fellows.