Saturday, April 11, 2009

Microdemocracies of bacteria

As Homepaddock points out, the search for treatments against antibiotic resistant superbugs is a big thing. Light activated drugs sound very similar to this talk at TED from Bonnie Bassler, which refers to stealth squid, bacteria encrypted family conversations, quorum sensing and Esperanto for inter-species co-ordination:



The last bit of the talk, where Bessler rejoices in the brains trust of twenty-somethings, makes a crucial point. HP sings the praises of 29 year old former Otago uni graduate Linda Dekker. Very few physicists make their mark after their 20's (Richard Feynman's work on Quantum Chromo Dynamics was an exception. His work on Quantum Electro Dynamics were forming way before WWII got in the way).