Editing Rock paper scissors (section)

== Analogues in real life ==

=== Lizard mating strategies ===
{{Main|Common side-blotched lizard#Mating}}
The [[common side-blotched lizard]] (''Uta stansburiana'') exhibits a rock paper scissors pattern in its mating strategies. Of its three throat color types of males, "orange beats blue, blue beats yellow, and yellow beats orange" in competition for females, which is similar to the rules of rock-paper-scissors.<ref>{{cite web | title = The rock-paper-scissors game and the evolution of alternative male strategies | url = http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/~barrylab/lizardland/male_lizards.overview.html | author = Sinervo, Barry | access-date = 2006-08-20 | date = 2001-02-20 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190211132220/http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/~barrylab/lizardland/male_lizards.overview.html | archive-date = 2019-02-11 | author-link = Barry Sinervo }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = The Games Lizards Play | url = http://7thavenueproject.com/post/451026680/barry-sinervo-lizards-and-evolution | author = Barry Sinervo on the 7th Avenue Project Radio Show | author-link = Barry Sinervo on the 7th Avenue Project Radio Show | access-date = 2010-03-25 | archive-date = 2011-04-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110424205323/http://7thavenueproject.com/post/451026680/barry-sinervo-lizards-and-evolution | url-status = live }}</ref>

=== Bacteria ===
Some bacteria also exhibit a rock paper scissors dynamic when they engage in [[antibiotic]] production. The theory for this finding was demonstrated by computer simulation and in the laboratory by Benjamin Kerr, working at [[Stanford University]] with [[Brendan Bohannan]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kerr|first=Benjamin|author2=Riley, Margaret A. |author3=Feldman, Marcus W. |author4= Bohannan, Brendan J. M. |title=Local dispersal promotes biodiversity in a real-life game of rock–paper–scissors|journal=Nature|date=11 July 2002|volume=418|issue=6894|pages=171–174|doi=10.1038/nature00823|pmid=12110887|bibcode=2002Natur.418..171K|s2cid=4348391}}</ref> Additional ''in vitro'' results demonstrate rock paper scissors dynamics in additional species of bacteria.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pátková|first=Irena|author2=Čepl, Jaroslav J |author3=Rieger, Tomáš |author4=Blahůšková, Anna |author5=Neubauer, Zdeněk |author6= Markoš, Anton |title=Developmental plasticity of bacterial colonies and consortia in germ-free and gnotobiotic settings|journal=BMC Microbiology|date=1 January 2012|volume=12|issue=1 |pages=178|doi=10.1186/1471-2180-12-178|pmid=22894147|pmc=3583141 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Biologist Benjamin C. Kirkup Jr. demonstrated that these antibiotics, [[bacteriocin]]s, were active as ''Escherichia coli'' compete with each other in the intestines of mice, and that the rock paper scissors dynamics allowed for the continued competition among strains: antibiotic-producers defeat antibiotic-sensitives; antibiotic-resisters multiply and withstand and out-compete the antibiotic-producers, letting antibiotic-sensitives multiply and out-compete others; until antibiotic-producers multiply again.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kirkup|first=Benjamin C.|author2=Riley, Margaret A. |title=Antibiotic-mediated antagonism leads to a bacterial game of rock–paper–scissors in vivo|journal=Nature|date=25 March 2004|volume=428|issue=6981|pages=412–414|doi=10.1038/nature02429|pmid=15042087|bibcode=2004Natur.428..412K|s2cid=4412745}}</ref>

Rock paper scissors is the subject of continued research in bacterial ecology and evolution. It is considered one of the basic applications of [[game theory]] and non-linear dynamics to bacteriology.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Adami|first=Christoph|author2=Schossau, Jory |author3=Hintze, Arend |title=Evolution and stability of altruist strategies in microbial games|journal=Physical Review E|date=1 January 2012|volume=85|issue=1|pages=011914|doi=10.1103/PhysRevE.85.011914|pmid=22400598|arxiv=1012.0276|bibcode=2012PhRvE..85a1914A|s2cid=2587810}}</ref> Models of evolution demonstrate how intragenomic competition can lead to rock paper scissors dynamics from a relatively general evolutionary model.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rankin|first=D. J.|author2=Turner, L. A. |author3=Heinemann, J. A. |author4= Brown, S. P. |title=The coevolution of toxin and antitoxin genes drives the dynamics of bacterial addiction complexes and intragenomic conflict|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|date=11 July 2012|volume=279|issue=1743|pages=3706–3715|doi=10.1098/rspb.2012.0942 |pmid=22787022 |pmc=3415908}}</ref> The general nature of this basic non-transitive model is widely applied in theoretical biology to explore bacterial ecology and evolution.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bucci|first=Vanni|author2=Nadell, Carey D. |author3=Xavier, João B. |title=The Evolution of Bacteriocin Production in Bacterial Biofilms|journal=The American Naturalist|date=1 December 2011|volume=178|issue=6|pages=E162–E173|doi=10.1086/662668|pmid=22089878|s2cid=25361931}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1103/PhysRevE.84.021912|pmid=21929025|title=Effects of competition on pattern formation in the rock-paper-scissors game|year=2011|last1=Jiang|first1=Luo-Luo|last2=Zhou|first2=Tao|last3=Perc|first3=Matjaž|last4=Wang|first4=Bing-Hong|journal=Physical Review E|volume=84|issue=2|pages=021912|arxiv=1108.1790|bibcode=2011PhRvE..84b1912J|s2cid=6375624}}</ref>

=== Mechanical devices and geometrical constructions ===
In the televised [[robot combat]] competition ''[[BattleBots]]'', relations between "lifters, which had wedged sides and could use forklift-like prongs to flip pure wedges", "spinners, which were smooth, circular wedges with blades on their bottom side for disabling and breaking lifters", and "pure wedges, which could still flip spinners" are analogical to relations in rock paper scissors games and called "robot Darwinism".<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-06/elaborate-history-how-wedges-ruined-battlebots| title = Atherton, K. D. (2013). A brief history of the demise of battle bots. Popular science.| date = 19 June 2013| access-date = 1 December 2018| archive-date = 13 September 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170913013037/http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-06/elaborate-history-how-wedges-ruined-battlebots| url-status = live}}</ref>