I'm a big fan of the TED Talks (Technology Entertainment Design)web site where the most knowledgable people in a wide range of fields are invited to give their best 18 minute talks. The talks range from ant research over a 20 year period to how writers bring their real lives to the page. Today I watched Bonnie Bassler, a Princeton mircobiology professor describe how bacteria, a one celled organism, "talk" to each other using chemical language. In fact, she presents the social aspects of bacteria as both inter and intra species. Her presentation was so down to earth, funny, and amazingly informative. She makes it so easy to understand how virulent bacteria communicate and know when they've amassed enough of them to overtake a giant species like a human. On the flip side, she explained what good jobs bacteria do in all species. After all, we are about 99% bacteria, most of which are good she reminds us. At the end of her engaging talk, she showed a picture of her research assistants at Princeton, all of whom are under 30. These could be some of our future students if we can engage them in science by 4th grade (that's from other research I've read).
So, my advice to you is watch this engaging talk by going to the link below:
Use this to inspire you as a scientist. You'll never see yourself under the microscope in the same way again.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/509
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TED is brilliant, did you know they have an iphone app? i haven't played with it too much, but i know it exists. it's amazing how social most things in this world tend to be if we look for those relationships.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of students find a way to communicate with each other. I love the fact that even bacteria has "jargon" and finds a way to achieve its goal communicate and take over the host. Love it. How phenomenal life is and that drive to live transcends obstacles.
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