Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Microbial Communication!!!


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The minute we think of bacteria we see little organisms floating on a dish with all kinds of shapes and sized, big little, spiky and non-spiky. For me I particularly see little organisms like the ones from the movie evolution, organisms going from worm like creatures to weird looking dog things. However what if those organisms could socialize, the thought of tiny little microorganisms using antibiotics and defenses at a type of chemical warfare. The article does that, introducing the concept of little organisms have massive battlefields. After each complete thought it introduction of an idea they backed it up immediately with thoughts from a prestigious professional.

Photomicrograph in green light of bacteria.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125338

They also do a nice way of introducing their studies done, explaining what their results were when they paired specific microorganisms, the results were as predicted the organisms would create a battlefield attacking other competition with everything they possibly got. The interesting key fact that they mentioned was the microorganisms did not attack their same team members or other organisms like them. They developed a way to communicate with each other in such a way for us to realize how that type of behavior the ones we display today in warfare originated. How different are we from the bacteria that invaded us, how truly different over millennia’s of evolution are we when we see our behavior in the organisms we examine.

Article :http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125338

1 comment:

  1. This article was really interesting. I have also wondered if bacteria and other microorganisms had a way to communicate, or if they just completely did their own thing. To find out that they actually do have a way of communicating is really quite fascinating. Whenever I thought of bacteria and other microbes I always assumed they were sort of programed to do simple tasks, and that was the only thing that they were able to do, but now that I have learned that the microbes can socialize and have a way to communicate it has changed my perspective on microbes. Also the fact that these bacteria can have battles with other bacteria is really cool. I wonder how the bacteria know what other bacteria to attack, and which bacteria are the same as them and not attack them. Bacteria and humans have that in common which makes bacteria that much more interesting.

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