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Reef-building coral may feed more efficiently by using tiny hair-like structures – called cilia – to generate food-carrying conveyer belts of mucus and seawater across their surface. By adding a marker to the surfaces of several coral species, Igor Adameyko at the Medical University of Vienna and his colleagues were able to model their flow. Each coral species forms a unique arrangement of horizontal, mucus-carrying currents. “[We think] the coral wants to coordinate polyps so that if one polyp didn’t catch the food, the food can be transported to the next one using these horizontal routes,” says Adameyko.