communication skills in prokaryotes
I was reading the February 2007 issue of BioTechniques --doesn't everyone?--and came across something interesting in a profile of a professor at Princeton University. It seems that Dr Bonnie Bassler is very interested in communications issues. From my varied relationships with the fairer sex this seems to be a constant interest with women. However Dr Bassler has worked a twist into this issue. Her work is purely with bacteria. Yes, bacteria. Bacteria and communication issues. Germs can talk?! Who knew! It all started when Dr Bassler went to a lecture which had as its core how certain deep sea bacteria use bioluminescence to signal, a topic now called quorum sensing. I still can't get over bacteria talking. Anyway, Dr Bassler quickly signed up to work in this area of research and has since found that bacteria do communicate in a large and diverse number of ways--the method of communication depending on the environment that the bacteria has adapted to . (or for any IDers out the...