You think You are Human? Actually You Are 99% Bacteria.

This is the Best Scientific Video Lecture I've attended/viewed. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed...acteria-bonnie

Bonnie Bassler, an authority on the communication patterns of bacteria delivers the address at Long Beach, California.



Key takeaways for me: Bacteria communicate amongst themselves using chemical signals. Communicating between each other helps them to act in unison.


This would prove vital for us humans as there are around 10 trillions bacterial cells in our body.



Bassler's work could be a precursor to the development of potent medicine that can serve the human race. In fact, our understanding of self might see a turnaround, thanks to Bonnie's research.


Please share your takeaways after watching the amazing video.

This is the Arts forum...

Originally Posted by vizigothe

This is the Arts forum...

Oops. Can somebody move it to Athenaeum?

Almost failblog.org worthy!..almost

shes an authority really? I could have come up with this illogical, incomprehensible ramble after i rolled out of bed and fell from my roof. That said, I do feel like I have a small case of the cooties now.

Thread moved.

Originally Posted by PubliusKhannus

shes an authority really? I could have come up with this illogical, incomprehensible ramble after i rolled out of bed and fell from my roof. That said, I do feel like I have a small case of the cooties now.

Sometimes experts can come across as failingly ignorant.

I didn't watch more than one minute 52 seconds into it at least not by my posting, for me I felt that she probably wouldn't say much more.

I think it fails to reflect one what actually makes our genetic makeup to say something like that. Just to say that 99% of all DNA associated with the space you occupy belongs to bacteria is overlooking that fact that that doesn't make you who you are. Bacteria are parasites, they feed off of whatever it is that they are occupying. Most of them are purely symbiotic, specimines like E. Coli actually play a part in breaking down nutrients that we eat (as long as what we're eating isn't E. Coli itself) and some of them would kill us if they weren't present, but if you remove all of those bacteria you would not cease to be human, you'd just be a naked human living in a sterile environment within which you probably have three seconds to live.

Remove any of the human DNA that you have, though? You're a banana. Simple as that.

Also, humans would fundamentally have similar traits to bacteria should the validity of the concept that we evolved from single celled organisms justly apply. Just as bacteria do our body cells replicate by splitting. We` at out very conception were a single celled organism. What is believed to have made the difference between bacteria and human was the form of replication; at one time a splitting bacteria stayed intact despite the fact that it split in half. This led to the evolution of extremely rudamentary life forms, krill and plankton probably being rvery similar to early multi-celled organisms. It also led to the differences of plants and animals, some cells now stuck together developing to be a stationary organism acquiring its sustainence via osmositised water and sunlight, others developing into organisms that can run and hunt for its food.

Ultimately we are all creatures designed to sustain the single-cells that our geneology has evolved into, and all the other single-celled organisms associated with our bodies are just along for the ride.

If we remove our DNA we become bananas? And we can be peeled? I must try this.

Originally Posted by vizigothe

If we remove our DNA we become bananas? And we can be peeled? I must try this.

Actually, if you know what to modify, yes.
Genetically we are about 78% alike to a banana.

The wierd thing is that the banana isn't even the organism, it's a by-product. That's like saying we're related to an egg... which we are, since we're more genetically similar to chickens, too.

And I might point out that you can already be peeled... you just wouldn't want to be.

hmm try it on a finger first, you dont want to be too mushy. I recommend peanut butter dipping sauce.

You never said anything about modifying sir! You mentions removing. I spur thee!

Well, removing is modifying, is it not?

No....

*runs off to bed and hopes this thread drops to the bottom by 2pm EST*

EST? Unlikely, I'll be on by 2 pm!


Did I scare you by the possibilities, vizigothe?

This was really funny already and I didn't even watch it.

I'm listening now.

Obviously shes speaking to a scientific audience being she feels the need to explain what a bacteria is......

Ok we are 99% bacteria... well obviously not by weight.

Obviously shes missed a few biology lectures in the last 30 years if she thinks that currently people think bacteria is unimportant for the environment. ........

And apparently she discovered chemical communication in bacteria? .... dur?

Ok specific cell receptors.....nothing new there either....

OK I'm starting to skim forward....can't keep interested.

Ah ok now this is in fact interesting. The idea of disrupting a bacteria communication to prevent the second stage of an infection is pretty interesting.

So in other words this woman isn't stupid, her audience is, and shes having to play to their lack of understanding by explaining the basics so her one really interesting point isn't lost to their lack of education.

so shes counting on the fact that her audience is semi-comatose?

Originally Posted by PubliusKhannus

so shes counting on the fact that her audience is semi-comatose?

No, she realizes that her audience wouldn't understand what she was talking about unless she treated them like a 8th grade science class.

I'm not an expert at this but...I stopped and raised my eyebrow when she said that since there were 10 trillion bacterial cells to our 1 trillion "human" cells, we're therefore 1-10% "human". For starters, are human and bacterial cells the same size? Does all this flesh and bone and blood not count for more than 10% of our body? I just can't believe this.

Originally Posted by D.B. Cooper

I'm not an expert at this but...I stopped and raised my eyebrow when she said that since there were 10 trillion bacterial cells to our 1 trillion "human" cells, we're therefore 1-10% "human". For starters, are human and bacterial cells the same size? Does all this flesh and bone and blood not count for more than 10% of our body? I just can't believe this.

Read my post, the real lecture is the last few mins, thats just biology for idiots she starts with.

Originally Posted by D.B. Cooper

I'm not an expert at this but...I stopped and raised my eyebrow when she said that since there were 10 trillion bacterial cells to our 1 trillion "human" cells, we're therefore 1-10% "human". For starters, are human and bacterial cells the same size? Does all this flesh and bone and blood not count for more than 10% of our body? I just can't believe this.

Bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, generally speaking, yes (although both vary drastically in size). They're simpler for sure. Some specific types of human cells are much more massive than others. Also, some of the mass of your body isn't stored in cells at all, but in an intercellular matrix.

Basically, your intuition is right. It's a misrepresentation, typical of attempts to popularize science by making it sound cool at the expense of actually being informative. Bacteria form only a small part of our body by mass or volume.