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Bacteria Talk To Each Other On Bassler Video
Bacteria talk with each other using a chemical 'language'. Using quorum sensing, they can even coordinate their defenses and mount attacks.
This amazing talk by researcher Bonnie Bassler, who teaches molecular biology at Princeton, goes through some of the discoveries made by her lab group. It's about eighteen minutes long, but it's a fabulous presentation.
(Bonnie Bassler on bacterial communication and quorum sensing video)
Just one of the many topics covered is the subject of intra-species communication by bacteria. It turns out that all bacterial "languages" all share the same root "words".
(Intraspecies Communication)
Regular technovelgy readers already know about some of these developments; I wrote about Bassler's work on quorum sensing four years ago. Five years ago, I even compared the universal language of bacteria to Esperanto, just like Dr. Bassler did in this 2009 video.
As you learned in this video, you're only about 10% human; let your bacterial majority feast upon these links:
- First Motor Powered By Living Bacteria
The bacteria-driven motor consists of a square central basin into which the M. mobile are deposited. - New Bacteria Eats Plastic; What Could Go Wrong?
Daniel Burd may have figured out a way for humanity to take care of the five hundred million plastic bags tossed into landfills and the ocean every year. - Humans Teach Bacteria New Language
An artificial cell-to-cell communication network teaches bacteria to communicate with each other. - Bacteria Attacks Oil Like Black Monday Novel
"We were surprised to find these bacteria because asphalt is an extreme and hostile environment for life to survive," said Jong-Shik Kim. - Bacteria Save Your Data, Make Multiple Backups
According to researchers, up to 100 bits of data can be attached to each organism.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 4/18/2009)
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