life inspired

"bacteria, seemingly the most basic and solitary of life forms, are, in fact, communicating with each other. They are counting themselves, their cousin species, and the unrelated 'others' in their vicinity and changing their behavior as a group in response to the results of this census. Researchers who study this behavior, known as quorum sensing, believe this ability is the origin of multicellularity and communal behavior. It may also yield important practical benefits, such as new approaches for combating drug-resistant bacterial infections in humans." Full article @ PNAS

Labels: bacteria, collective behavior, quorum sensing