Worlds Within Worlds - Bacteria "Talk"

Source: http://2012.igem.org/wiki/images/d/d1/Media_5a7257dc5595cb7be3df7954509f3e90.jpeg

Below is a TED Talk by Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk". It's an interesting lecture and is spoken in plain terms - a great 18 minutes of time and well worth viewing. Now, how does bacteria "talking" relate to Environmental Perception? Well, admittedly it may seem as a single point of interest, but only if it is taken at face value... If we start to think about communication and what we think of as "intelligence", perhaps this TED Talk could stimulate a new way of looking at our world and environment.

For anyone who has read or watched the Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who" - there are worlds within worlds! Just as Horton could hear a community of "Whos" in a seeding dandelion, there are communities of organisms beyond what we can see or hear! So the next time you look at a drop of water running from your gutters when it rains, and think it's just H2O and devoid of life, think again. There is a whole community of organisms in that single drop, having a "conversation". Now, think about the natural environment: water from the oceans, fields of grass, leaves in a forest, sand on a beach, the skin on your body... the list goes on. And yes, there are communities of organisms there too!! But don't fret - these are not all "bad" organisms. In fact, there are many organisms that live symbiotically (i.e. mutually beneficial relationship) that help us!! This is how our multifaceted immune system functions. How COOL is that?!?

Now, taking it a step further into a hypothetical... what about our world? Surely, if there are worlds within our world, might there be worlds above our worlds? There isn't a "right" answer here - but is something for you to consider - and is not intended to challenge anyone's personal, spiritual, or religious beliefs. Nonetheless, it is an interesting thought!

Interesting thoughts on how we view the natural world is just one of Environmental Perception's goals: to get people thinking.

Further reading:

    Miller, Melissa B., and Bonnie L. Bassler. "Quorum sensing in bacteria." Annual Reviews in Microbiology 55.1 (2001): 165-199.

    Irvine, Karen. "Worlds Within Worlds." Catalogue Essay (Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC) (2009).

    Ley, Ruth E., et al. "Worlds within worlds: evolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota." Nature Reviews Microbiology 6.10 (2008): 776-788.

    http://www.davidpratt.info/worlds.htm

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse 
    Bernard Carr, ed. (2007) Universe or Multiverse? Cambridge Univ. Press.
    Ellis, George F.R.; William R. Stoeger; Stoeger, W. R. (2004). "Multiverses and physical cosmology". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 347 (3): 921–936. arXiv:astro-ph/0305292. Bibcode:2004MNRAS.347..921E. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07261.x.