Bonnie Bassler has a fantastic way of painting bacteria as if they were the tiny men from Gulliver’s Travels. I think I was just as interested in the squid she talks about as I was in bacterial communication. She talks about how the squid holds the bacteria in a special compartment and has detectors on its back to figure out how much light is coming down during the night and to let out more light or less from the glowing bacteria based on the amount of light detected from its back. Basically it is the stealth bomber of the sea.

Here’s her profile at Princeton:

http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=27

Share