An electric knifefish shimmies in the water for the same reason a dog sniffs or a human glances around a new place—to make sense of their surroundings. For the first time, scientists demonstrate that a wide range of organisms, even microbes, perform the same pattern of movements in order to sense the world.An electric knifefish shimmies in the water for the same reason a dog sniffs or a human glances around a new place—to make sense of their surroundings. For the first time, scientists demonstrate that a wide range of organisms, even microbes, perform the same pattern of movements in order to sense the world.[#item_full_content]