[Bacteria] have an incredibly complicated chemical lexicon that ... allows bacteria to be multicellular. In the spirit of TED they're doing things together because it makes a difference.
Interpretation
Bacteria communicate to form complex communities, highlighting the importance of collaboration.
In this quote, Bonnie Bassler emphasizes the remarkable ability of bacteria to use a sophisticated system of chemical signals to communicate with one another. This communication enables them to coordinate activities and function as multicellular organisms, illustrating the concept that working together enhances survival and efficacy in nature, much like in human society.
In practice
In a biology class discussing microbial life, this quote can illustrate how even the simplest organisms rely on teamwork.
We've all been sick; we're all afraid of infection. I think the easiest application to help people understand what quorum sensing is and why it's important to study is to tell them that if we could make the bacteria either deaf or mute, we could create new antibiotics.
I remember it was hard to believe that I was taking a step onto the lunar surface.
You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? - Medicine.
At lunch Francis [Crick] winged into the Eagle to tell everyone within hearing distance that we had found the secret of life.
With any hallucinations, if you can do functional brain imagery while they're going on, you will find that the parts of the brain usually involved in seeing or hearing - in perception - have become super active by themselves. And this is an autonomous activity; this does not happen with imagination.
Yet is it possible in terms of the motion of atoms to explain how men can invent an electric motor, or design and build a great cathedral? If such achievements represent anything more than the requirements of physical law, it means that science must investigate the additional controlling factors, whatever they may be, in order that the world of nature may be adequately understood.
The idea of atomic energy is illusionary but it has taken so powerful a hold on the minds, that although I have preached against it for twenty-five years, there are still some who believe it to be realizable.
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