How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other?
Summary
Dr. Bonnie Bassler discusses the complex communication methods of bacteria, which use chemicals to sense their environment and coordinate group behaviors. She explores how bacteria distinguish between relatives and competitors, and how they interact with viruses and host organisms. Bassler also touches on the potential applications of understanding bacterial communication for medicine and environmental science, and how her initial interest in bioluminescent bacteria led to broader insights into collective behavior.Episode description
Bacteria have been around for billions of years. Could they have come up with complex behaviors that we just don’t understand yet? Could they have their own language? Their own culture? Their own complex societies playing out right under, and in, our noses?
Microbiologist Bonnie Bassler has been studying these questions for more than 30 years. She talks with Host Flora Lichtman about the wild world of bacterial communication, and how understanding microbes could help us understand ourselves.
Guest: Dr. Bonnie Bassler, microbiologist at Princeton University
Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
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