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Cracking the Code of Bacterial Communication
TEDChris writes "Microbiologist Bonnie Bassler explains her discovery of 'quorum sensing' — the amazing ability of bacteria to communicate with each other and coordinate attack strategies (video). By cracking the communication code, she has opened up potential for a new class of drugs tackling microbial diseases. The talk got a massive standing ovation at this year's TED and has just been posted. To quote one commenter: 'This is by far the most inspiring, amazing, and far-reaching talk I've seen in a very long time.'"
The first 10 seconds after the obligatory TED intro spam she says something stupid - "Bacteria are the oldest organisms on the planet", Oh Really? I guess "Archaea" are just called that for fun.
And after 15 minutes of completely horrid microbiology 101, which, btw, she claims her group she discovered, she finally gets to the "please give us grant money" pitch. Quorum sensing blocking drugs may have theraputic efforts. Wooo, ya don't say. But the silliest thing is that she suggests these might replace anti-biotics. Cause, apparently, stopping pathogenic bacteria from enacting their "we're in the majority now" payload is just as good as killing them. Nevermind that eventually these drugs will wear off, and that population of bacteria won't be getting any smaller.. and that the whole mechanism of our immune system is based on detecting the harm that pathogens cause.. just keep taking the drug, forever, and you'll never get the symptoms that your immune system needs to tell it to fight off the infection. Problem solved once and for all. But.. once and for all!!
The drug companies will love it though.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Wow, karma-whoring your journal article on Slashdot! It sounds strangely like something I considered doing back in 2004...