Fifty years ago this month, Peter Karlson and Martin Liischer proposed a new word for the chemicals used to communicate between individuals of the same species: pheromones1. Since then, pheromones have been found across the animal kingdom, sending messages between courting lobsters, alarmed aphids, suckling rabbit pups, mound-building termites and trail-following ants. They are also used by algae, yeast, ciliates and bacteria.
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