The ability to make decisions is seen as one of the most important intellectual abilities for humans and animals. Now Japanese scientists claim that an inanimate objects such as an iron bar is capable of gathering information about its surroundings to make a'decision' too. They believe their study has implications for understanding how lower life forms function. Japanese scientists claim that inanimate objects such as an iron bar are capable of gathering information about their surroundings to make a decision. Song-Ju Kim, of National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, told Phys.org: 'The most important implication that we wish to claim is that the proposed scheme will provide a new perspective for understanding the information-processing principles of certain lower forms of life.