Babies get their first exposure to bacteria that colonise their guts as they travel down the birth canal.
Residents of Russia's far east fear that China is planning to plunder their oil and timber and perhaps even to colonise their empty spaces.
Likewise, Mr Cameron has tried to colonise poverty-hitherto Labour's intellectual fief-for the Tories.
Tens of thousands of years ago, the Austronesians migrated their way through Papua New Guinea to colonise the Pacific. They probably started off in little bamboo craft, like this.
And they hope that, by turning over dealers quickly, they will make it hard for them to colonise territory to fight over.
Another area of research is the process by which these helpful bacteria first colonise the digestive tract.
'we were interested whether behavioural flexibility can increase the chance of a given species to successfully colonise cities,' said Dr Maklakov.
They are already discovering how to colonise Venus and to irrigate the moon.
Seaweeds and corals, which need light to grow, colonise them.
