How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other?

Bacteria are not as simple as their reputation suggests. Understanding how they communicate may lead to better disease treatments for us humans.

Bacteria have been around for billions of years. Could they have come up with complex behaviors that we just don’t understand yet? Could they have their own language? Their own culture? Their own complex societies playing out right under, and in, our noses? 

Microbiologist Bonnie Bassler has been studying these questions for more than 30 years. She talks with Host Flora Lichtman about the wild world of bacterial communication, and how understanding microbes could help us understand ourselves.

Guest: Dr. Bonnie Bassler, microbiologist at Princeton University

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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