Well, okay, not quite. Still, this Wired magazine article is pretty creepy. Research biologist Bonnie Bassler has apparently discovered that bacteria can use chemical signals to communicate with one another and conduct "the sort of collective strategizing typically ascribed to bees, ants, and people, not to bacteria." Is anyone else uncomfortable with the notion that bacterial life may be "highly social, intricately networked, and teeming with interactions?"
Posted by Marie Gryphon on March 26, 2003Why be uncomfortable? This is beautiful! It shows that there's a very deep logic to coordination, which we attempt to defy at our peril.
Posted by: Will Wilkinson on March 27, 2003 12:27 AMHmm. Human or not, bacteria or not -
that green stuff at the bottom of my
fridge has sure got me whipped.
Having attended more than any person's fair share of cocktail parties in Washington DC, I have personally observed far lower life forms that were "highly social, intricately networked, and teeming with interactions."
Thanks folks. I'll be here all week.
Posted by: Keelay on March 27, 2003 10:18 AMKyle, where is here? You aren't here yet, are you?
Posted by: Marie on March 27, 2003 11:19 AMNope. Still soaking up the sun here in AZ. I will be in town April 16-19 for my execution.
Posted by: keelay on March 27, 2003 2:23 PMHey: A person has just as much right to live, as does a sheep, as does an earthworm, as does a plant, as does a bacteria... this should help forward the important moral cause of bacterial rights.
Posted by: Tim on April 10, 2003 10:45 AM