IGotWorms 3,309 Posted May 5, 2018 Very interesting article: For simple single-celled organisms, microbes often can seem as civic-minded as an Amish barn-raising crew. They cooperate to mince unwieldy complex carbohydrates into bite-size pieces for all to enjoy. They share the artisanally crafted molecules needed to extract essential iron from their surroundings. They jointly construct a kind of slimy tarp, a biofilm, on a convenient surface like a pond rock or your teeth, under which the microbes then safely hide. Through teamwork and constant chemical communication, microorganisms shape the world on which we macro-organisms preen. Yet scientists have discovered that just as a big holiday sale can quickly crush the wisdom of a human crowd underfoot, so can a microbial village be infected with mass stupidity, to devastating effect. Jeff Gore, a biophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues Christoph Ratzke and Jonas Denk, report that when a sample of Paenibacillus sp., a soil bacteria, is fed a diet of glucose and nutrients in the laboratory and allowed to grow at will, the microbes end up polluting their local environment so quickly and completely that the entire population soon kills itself off. In essence, the researchers said, the microbes commit ecological suicide. The study was published in April in Nature Ecology and Evolution. The effect is so dramatic, Dr. Gore said. You have an exponential growth of the population followed by exponential death. Within 24 hours of the onset of the death spiral, he said, no viable cells were left in the entire culture. Its not that the microbes had exhausted their resources: Food remained to feed on. But in gorging heedlessly on the glucose bounty, each bacterium had secreted a steady flow of acidic waste into the culture medium, until the ambient pH level had plunged lethally low. More at the link: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/science/microbes-ecological-suicide.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IMMensaMind 459 Posted May 5, 2018 Kinda like when too many people become Democrat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IGotWorms 3,309 Posted May 5, 2018 Kinda like when too many people become Democrat. Thanks for illustrating the point! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
12th Man 884 Posted May 5, 2018 Thanks for illustrating the point! Shut up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IGotWorms 3,309 Posted May 5, 2018 Shut up. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a stupid microbe sh1tting in its own Petri dish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IMMensaMind 459 Posted May 5, 2018 This, ladies and gentlemen, is a stupid microbe sh1tting in its own Petri dish That's why I used the Democrat analogy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
12th Man 884 Posted May 5, 2018 That's why I used the Democrat analogy.Bingo! But the moron who started the thread is too blind to realize it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MDC 5,890 Posted May 5, 2018 Shut up. What happens if he doesnt? You tell mom? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frozenbeernuts 1,652 Posted May 5, 2018 Kinda like when too many people learn one way. I fixed it for ya Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
