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The Bacteria Whisperer
Wired News ^ | 04/03 | Steve Silberman

Posted on 03/21/2003 7:56:35 PM PST by gore3000

Issue 11.04 - April 2003

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The Bacteria Whisperer

Bonnie Bassler discovered a secret about microbes that the science world has missed for centuries. The bugs are talking to each other. And plotting against us.

By Steve Silberman

Trim and hyperkinetic at 40, Bonnie Bassler is often mistaken for a graduate student at conferences. Five mornings a week at dawn, she walks a mile to the local YMCA to lead a popular aerobics class. When a representative from the MacArthur Foundation phoned last fall, the caller played coy at first, asking Bassler if she knew anyone who might be worthy of one of the foundation's fellowships, popularly known as genius grants. "I'm sorry," Bassler apologized, "I don't hang out with that caliber of people."

The point of the call, of course, was that Bassler - an associate professor of molecular biology at Princeton - is now officially a genius herself. More than a decade ago, she began studying a phenomenon that even fellow biologists considered to be of questionable significance: bacterial communication. Now she finds herself at the forefront of a major shift in mainstream science.

The notion that microbes have anything to say to each other is surprisingly new. For more than a century, bacterial cells were regarded as single-minded opportunists, little more than efficient machines for self-replication. Flourishing in plant and animal tissue, in volcanic vents and polar ice, thriving on gasoline additives and radiation, they were supremely adaptive, but their lives seemed, well, boring. The "sole ambition" of a bacterium, wrote geneticist François Jacob in 1973, is "to produce two bacteria."

New research suggests, however, that microbial life is much richer: highly social, intricately networked, and teeming with interactions. Bassler and other researchers have determined that bacteria communicate using molecules comparable to pheromones. By tapping into this cell-to-cell network, microbes are able to collectively track changes in their environment, conspire with their own species, build mutually beneficial alliances with other types of bacteria, gain advantages over competitors, and communicate with their hosts - the sort of collective strategizing typically ascribed to bees, ants, and people, not to bacteria.

Last year, Bassler and her colleagues unlocked the structure of a molecular language shared by many of nature's most fearsome particles of mass destruction, including those responsible for cholera, tuberculosis, pneumonia, septicemia, ulcers, Lyme disease, stomach cancer, and bubonic plague. Now even Big Pharma, faced with a soaring number of microbes resistant to existing drugs, is taking notice of her work.


For the rest of the article GO HERE

(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bacteria; bigpharma; bubonicplague; cholera; crevolist; evolution; lymedisease; pneumonia; research; science; septicemia; stomachcancer; tuberculosis; ulcers
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To: PatrickHenry
Interesting article
21 posted on 03/21/2003 8:59:20 PM PST by rustbucket
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To: struwwelpeter
E. coli is able to transmit antibiotic resistance to Salmonella sp and other pathogens. This has been known at least since I took micro in the 1980s.

Was the method of communication understood or just the fact they communicated? If the method was understood, then you are right, what is the big deal.

22 posted on 03/21/2003 9:17:37 PM PST by Boiler Plate
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To: gore3000
just one more thing to worry about...
23 posted on 03/21/2003 9:21:16 PM PST by RnMomof7
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To: Boiler Plate; gore3000
This is another MOAB in the diaper of evolution since the first bacterial life was supposed to be simple. Now Miller & co will have to create life that not only has a library of genetic information but also talks.
24 posted on 03/22/2003 5:43:21 AM PST by Dataman
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To: Dataman
This is another MOAB in the diaper of evolution since the first bacterial life was supposed to be simple.

These are the "first" bacteria, are they?

25 posted on 03/22/2003 7:22:54 AM PST by general_re (Who will babysit the babysitters? - Jello Biafra)
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To: gore3000
Extremely interesting, I am working on paper on antibiotic resistance and will certainly include this information in my paper
26 posted on 03/22/2003 7:29:47 AM PST by mel
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To: lizma
So now PETA will defend these guys?

May be, we may have to write a bill of rights for them!

27 posted on 03/22/2003 11:42:32 AM PST by gore3000
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To: Alain2112
Ho Hum. This kind of signaling has been known for fifty years.

Perhaps if you had gone on to read the rest of the article you would not have said that:

The conclusion that only highly evolved organisms have the ability to act collectively proved to be a stubborn prejudice, however. On several occasions, Nealson tried to publish a diagram in microbiology journals illustrating cell-to-cell signaling in V. fischeri, but peer reviewers rejected it. Bacteria just don't do this, the critics told him.

28 posted on 03/22/2003 11:49:58 AM PST by gore3000
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To: struwwelpeter
E. coli is able to transmit antibiotic resistance to Salmonella sp and other pathogens.

It has been known for a while that bacteria can acquire genetic information from other bacteria. However, that they can cooperate together pruposely to achieve a certain objective, is something new.

29 posted on 03/22/2003 11:54:41 AM PST by gore3000
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To: Dataman; general_re
This is another MOAB in the diaper of evolution since the first bacterial life was supposed to be simple. Now Miller & co will have to create life that not only has a library of genetic information but also talks.-dataman-

Since evolutionists treat present genetic information as if it had not changed since the species first arose, to deny that this arose at the beginning they will have to throw out all the garbage they have been spouting for 150 years. They cannot have it both ways.

30 posted on 03/22/2003 11:58:14 AM PST by gore3000
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To: Mother Abigail
Something to keep you up at night.
31 posted on 03/22/2003 12:06:24 PM PST by CathyRyan
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To: gore3000
to deny that this arose at the beginning they will have to throw out all the garbage they have been spouting for 150 years. They cannot have it both ways.

Sure they can:

All effects have a cause/ all effects do not have a cause

Life only comes from life/ life sometimes comes from non-life.

Spontaneous generation is an old wives' tale/ spontaneous generation is science.

A theory without evidence is fact/ creation is a theory without evidence.

There are no transitional forms/ all forms are transitional.

Archaeopteryx is a reptile/ A. is a bird/ A. is a transitional form.

Dinos are warm-blooded/ dinos are cold-blooded.

Evo is established truth/ evo cannot stand criticism.

Evo is predictive/ we do not know into what we are evolving.

etc. etc. etc.

32 posted on 03/22/2003 1:01:51 PM PST by Dataman
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To: gore3000
Any dermatologist or internist understands the concept of "internal flora", whereby bacteria live symbiotically and cooperatively.
33 posted on 03/22/2003 2:55:42 PM PST by struwwelpeter (moonlight and vodka, takes me away)
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To: gore3000
I would like to offer my personal thanks to the designer. Hats off!
34 posted on 03/22/2003 2:58:23 PM PST by js1138
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To: gore3000
Since evolutionists treat present genetic information as if it had not changed since the species first arose, to deny that this arose at the beginning they will have to throw out all the garbage they have been spouting for 150 years. They cannot have it both ways.

Yeah. Right. Evolutionists believe that genetic information never changes. Got it.

35 posted on 03/22/2003 4:47:44 PM PST by jennyp (http://lowcarbshopper.bestmessageboard.com)
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To: gore3000
Regardless of when this was discovered, the possiblities are endless. Perhaps we could "learn" this language of pheremones, and "teach" the bacteria to not be so deadly, or not produce certain toxins. This could lead to a whole new way to fight deadly diseases and illnesses.
36 posted on 03/22/2003 4:55:11 PM PST by Alas Babylon!
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To: struwwelpeter
Any dermatologist or internist understands the concept of "internal flora", whereby bacteria live symbiotically and cooperatively.

That something happens, does not mean it is evolution. What we have this is much more than symbiosis, it is working towards a goal and exchange of information.

37 posted on 03/22/2003 4:57:23 PM PST by gore3000
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To: rintense
The bugs are talking to each other. And plotting against us.

Yes, I've been hearing voices in my head for years, that would explain it!


38 posted on 03/22/2003 5:00:59 PM PST by Gamecock (If you have to be one, BE A BIG RED ONE!)
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To: jennyp
Since evolutionists treat present genetic information as if it had not changed since the species first arose, to deny that this arose at the beginning they will have to throw out all the garbage they have been spouting for 150 years. They cannot have it both ways. -me-

Yeah. Right. Evolutionists believe that genetic information never changes. Got it.

Now, now, Jenny, you know you are misrepresenting what I said. Evolutionists claim that species are changing all the time, however, to prove their assumption they claim that species that have arisen hundreds of millions of years ago (according to evolution) can be compared in their present form to supposedly newer species as if none of them had ever been changing.

This article also poses a pretty great problem for evolutionists since communication is an intelligent act requiring symbolism.

39 posted on 03/22/2003 5:03:27 PM PST by gore3000
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To: Alas Babylon!
This could lead to a whole new way to fight deadly diseases and illnesses.

Yes indeed, and apparently some drug firms are already investigating the possibilities.

40 posted on 03/22/2003 5:05:03 PM PST by gore3000
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