WEBVTT - What did that bacterium say? 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.760 Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:16.200 works dot com. Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. This 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.480 is Alson Adama, like the science editor at how stuff 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.239 works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science rider 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.760 at how stuff works dot com. Yeah. Have you ever 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.600 thrown a party? I have certainly helped throw some parties. Yeah. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.160 Used to. When I first moved to Atlanta, I lived 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.600 in this house with the two other people, and it 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.760 was it was kind of a party house. Tell me 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.199 about it, Well, it was. It's interesting because it's like 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.080 in a really nice neighborhood in Atlanta. Um. And but 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.560 it was like the one house on the street that 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.640 it wasn't really that well kept up and didn't have 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.920 like a you know, a nice family living in it. 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:55.960 You know, the neighbors would cross the street when they 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.160 were walking their dogs. Yeah, it was like the it 0:00:58.280 --> 0:00:59.880 was you know, every street has that one house, and 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.600 this was that one house. Um. And it's just because 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.440 like some dude, don't you know, the dud who owned 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:05.920 it was like too lazy to fix it up and 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:07.560 sell it. So it's like I can just rent it out, 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.000 like you know, by the month to these people. So 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.039 for for you. For years, it was like everybody who 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:15.720 lived in it, like new people who had lived in 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.080 it before, and it just continually amassed more and more 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.319 used tup aware and kitchen items in the pantry um 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.080 and none of the type of head tops. Well there 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:28.720 were tops in there, but you know, God bless anybody 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.160 who could actually line everything up and you know, reuse it. 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:36.160 But yeah, we'd have have parties um and and yeah, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.319 like like we're saying, it's like parties tend to start 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:41.039 off with, you know, versus the people getting ready for 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.600 the party, right, and then the people who annoyingly show 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.560 up early to attend the party but don't want to 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.640 actually help you set up, so they're like they're like 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.280 one of them. Yeah, they're like asking for a drink, 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:53.120 or they're eating snacks while you're still setting up the 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.080 snacks and you're like, what are you doing? You know, 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.400 So then more people show up, and then you maybe 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.480 you start cranking the music a little right, the party 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.040 builds momentum, but it's like you know, when that first 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.720 sky or gal comes, you don't want to put everything 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:06.400 out right away. You don't want to put your best 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:08.280 or dirbs that you slaved over you don't want to 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.919 put maybe the micro brew that you're kind of keeping 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.160 for a little bit later, yeah, or be like, all right, 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.160 let's dance, you know, the three of us here. No, yeah, 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:18.040 you gotta save the good music for a little later. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.320 When the party achieves that tipping point, yeah, that point 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.959 at which the person starts doing the worm on the floor, 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.200 you know, somebody you know retires to a corner, maybe 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.639 to to do a little closing up to one another 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.280 hook up. The guy falls off the roof. No, no, no, no, no, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.760 that happened at this house. Yeah, are you serious? Some 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.480 dude like climb up on the roof and fell off 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.799 in the He was fine, because the kind of person 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:44.360 who crawls up on the top of the roof and 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.760 falls off during the course of a party tends to 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.880 be fine afterwards because he's probably done it before. But yeah, 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.239 that kind of thing happens, right, So today we're talking 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.320 about that seems sort of thing only in bacteria bacteria 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.880 party if you will party, which which sounds like, you know, 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.520 some sort of slanderous term you throw it like, you know, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:08.920 your least favorite restaurant. It's a bacteria part right, So specifically, 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.120 we're talking about quorum sensing, which is how a bacteria communicate. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.040 But first a little background. So bacteria, you guys are 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.560 going to remember just a simple, single celled organism doesn't 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.000 have a nucleus, lacks organ elles, you know, those tiny 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.280 specialized organs within the cellule membrane, like a mitochondria or 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.800 something like that, and your bacteria is going to be 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.919 probably round, spiral or road shaped, maybe Gram positive, maybe 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.520 Graham negative, and they're gonna fall under the domain bacteria. Yeah, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.080 So that's kind of an overview of factoria, just in 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.120 case you needed to jog your memory a bit. And 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.240 it's easy to fall into the trap though thinking of 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.200 these as simple, like simple organisms in the sense that 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.200 it's kind of like they evolve to a point and 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.840 just stopped where they you know, where they kind of 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.200 like they never got out of the first grade or 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.760 second grade, but it's more like they reached the second 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.400 grade and just became like really awesome that being a 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.000 second grade like in ways that we typically don't give 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.000 them credit for, right, So they're pretty complex organisms and 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:10.400 clever organisms. Consider this story. Back in the nineteen sixties, 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.960 a couple of researchers noticed that bacteria known as Vibrio 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:18.760 fishery uh displayed more luminescence as the bacterial population group. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:20.840 As you can imagine, it's kind of hard to glow. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.400 It takes a lot of energy. So scientists determined that 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.719 the bacteria were able to preserve their energy until they realize, hey, 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.160 this is the right moment, let's make a really good glow. 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.560 There are enough of us here to really make an impression. 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:33.680 So a lot of times you could see that good 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.880 glow in the liquid organ of a deep sea creature, 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.919 like you know, a squid, and it was really fascinating 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.440 stuff because these bacteria were living symbiotically um with the 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.240 squid or whatever creature they happened to inhabit, and the 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:51.640 light the bioluminescent bacteria would become the light structure for 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:53.840 the eye. It was so interesting. So it's like if 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.479 you had like a giant monster that coded itself with 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.320 like rab kids with like little blow sticks, and then 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.920 like you get enough of them together, like one ravor 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:03.800 kid with a glow sticks, and that can really produce 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:05.200 a lot. But it gets a lot of them together, 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:09.320 except yeah, except they they get these things end up 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.080 gathering together and then they produce glow more glowing right 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.640 right right, like the Ravor kids, no doubt, Yeah, and 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.520 the giant squid um. So the point of this is 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.760 that the population reaches has to reach a sufficient size 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.040 to emanate that killer glow. Again, like the party, you 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:26.800 have to get a certain number of people together before 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.800 the party really starts kicking, as they say. Yeah, And 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.960 that's an example of quorum sensing. It's it's really just 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.280 how bacteria communicate. It's used. It's usually used to tell 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:38.480 other bacteria, Hey, there are enough of us here out. 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.159 Let's let's get down to the bacterial business. And there's 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.200 some other organisms capable of mimicking quorum sensing, like I 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:48.080 saw some research on plants and algae and insects, possibly 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.919 to like honey bees. I guess insects might use it 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.080 to figure out where they're going to plant their next colony. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.760 Interesting anyway, So the name, as you guys can imagine, 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.719 comes from quorum or just them and already of people 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.240 from some particular group that you need to achieve for 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.680 like a vote or a political action to occur. Yeah, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.400 Like you're always hearing it down the news, like, oh, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:08.839 they have to get a quorum, and they have to 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.800 form a quorum on a particular talk topic before you know, 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.320 this legislation can pass or this rule can you know, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.400 be passed up in accompanying, etcetera. Yeah, example, how stuff 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.080 works dot Com couldn't pass that sweet new motion for 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.680 a four day work week because a quorum wasn't achieved. 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.400 I miss, I didn't get the email on that. Neither 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.520 did I if only it had gone out. I don't 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.200 know a four day work because then then you're just 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:37.200 gonna have like ten day workdays, right, work? Yeah, ten 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.839 day workdays? Whatever? What am I talking? Ten hour workdays? Right? Gotcha? Um? 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:42.640 I guess, I guess you could bump it up. What 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.440 did the French people do? Oh? Well, that's a whole 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.800 another issue. But so let's talk about coreum sensing. Let's 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.400 talk about how bacteria reached that critical capacity to communicate. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.640 So the mechanism here that you're really going to want 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.560 to concentrate on is auto inducers. Bacteria produced, they give 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.440 off these auto inducers and there they function is signaling molecules, 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.800 kind of like pheromones. So the concentration of autoinducers in 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.480 any given area is going to correspond with the size 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.800 of the bacterial population, like to bring this to a party. 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:15.400 You know how when people come to a party, they 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.280 never stick with this one cup for their beverage. They 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.360 end up with like leaving several around, like laying on 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.880 coffee tables and bookshelves. I see so number of cups 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:28.360 laying around as a indicator of how good the party is, right, 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:30.760 Like if you have two cups lying around, that means 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.640 you have fifty people there, right. So similarly, of course, 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.080 a high concentration of auto inducers is going to tell 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.000 you that a lot of bacteria present. So once you 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:40.880 get enough bacteria coming to the party, they're going to 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.800 start producing the molecules that are so toxic to their hosts. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.920 They may even form a biofilm, which is just a 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.480 massive group of bacteria that may form a coating like 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.840 on a mossy rock you were talking about in a 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.200 dog bowl. Yeah, more if you feel like a film 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.000 on your teeth, uh yeah, or a medical device. They're 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.880 pretty common on medical devices like a catheter, prosthetic device, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.360 or heart implant valve. So this is the tipping point, right, 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.160 This is kind of like when the party gets off 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.320 the chain as they say, you know when the guy 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:14.040 falls off that you're so full of these party expressions. Um, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:15.960 but yeah, that this is when, this is when things 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.680 start happening and and and that's the issue here, right, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.960 is is what happens when the when the bacteria actually 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.040 form a quorum and start doing the sometimes dangerous things 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.040 that bacteria do. Right, So this would be when they 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.319 they mobile us they decided to start infecting the host 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.120 generally speaking, right, Yeah, that that being the prime thing 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.840 that we're interested in, like the dangerous stuff. So just 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.800 to remind you, a quorum seuching drug would stop the communication, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.520 whereas a regular antibiotic kills bacteria, it stops the targeted 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.120 bacteria from growing and then of course allowing the development 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.800 of resistant mutan bacteria. Yeah. It basically we're talking about 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:58.120 cutting off the communication, like they'll be however many bacteria. 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.640 However many bacteria get in a room, but they don't 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.200 know all the other guys are really there. There's not 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.080 enough communication to get the party started. You know. It's 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:06.440 kind of like if you feel he's trying to have 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:08.240 a party with a bunch of lane people, you know, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.880 and they're just they're not they're gonna understanding around. My 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:12.439 husband has a name for this. He calls it a 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.160 lights on sit down party, lights on sit down part, 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.840 which I think is pretty apropos Well, if they're board games, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.280 you know sometimes that you know, sometimes just you know, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:26.640 scrabble is a good level of off the chain, you know, yeah, indeed, right, 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.280 especially if you allow like creative spelling, you know, then 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:34.040 it's whoa, and here's something else. Bacteria don't just communicate 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.280 with their own kind, right, They don't just communicate with 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.680 the people at the party. They may have receptors for 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.320 species specific auto inducers as well as receptors for signals 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:46.160 and up by all other kinds of bacteria. So there, 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.440 so there could be like party crashers and the bacteria 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:53.040 community indeed, indeed, right, So this would indicate, you know, 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.120 in the case of our bioluminescent ones, that not just 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.320 the bioluminescent ones are are communicating, but you know, they 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.720 may be communicating with other bacteria that are just floating 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:06.080 in the sea water chatting it up. So why does 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.240 it matter? Why do we care if bacteria are communicating? Well, 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.400 it really never hurts to have new tricks up our 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.280 sleep when we're dealing with bacteria, and and and again 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.640 that's the key thing here is that when bacteria form 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.000 a quorum, a lot of times you're gonna do something 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:27.040 deadly or at least unhealthy to the host. Right, So 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.080 let's take it in the hospital. Um, there's a there's 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:36.000 a pretty common bacteria called Pseudomonas aruginosa. You're smiling because 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:37.680 you want to make a food joke about how that's 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.240 now I did that, lad, I did that last week. Uh. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.880 Simon is a gram negative bacteria behind an infection that 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.960 strikes and often kills people with cystic fibrosis and other 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.360 immunocompromised people. This is going to be like people AIDS patients, 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.760 or maybe people are seeming chemotherapy or people with burns, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.160 and it's again it's really common in hospitals, but it 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.920 doesn't affect healthy people. So a couple of scientists from 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:08.160 the University at Buffalo were able to inhibit the master 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.400 regulatory gene behind coreum sensing. So that's effectively how we 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.800 are stopping bacteria from communicating, by the way, is by 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.640 regulating gene expression to get into the actual mechanics of it. 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.000 And so these these scientists were able to do that, 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.839 and it's pretty cool when you consider that a lot 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.800 of strains of P. Aruginosa are resistant to antibiotics. So again, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.240 it kind of comes back to having more than one 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.320 way to skin the cat, or stop the bacteria from 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.800 chatting with one another in this case and mobilize. Yeah, 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:37.439 and another thing that this is the thing that I 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.079 thought was really cool is um as an idea that's 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.520 been put forth by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.719 and that's that these could be basically quote everlasting antibiotics. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.640 And basically the principle here is, you know, we've all 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:56.800 heard of like antibiotic resistant drugs and like antibotic resistant bacteria, illnesses, 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.600 et cetera. You know, the idea is that by creating 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.120 like pulling out antibiotics, were pushing against them, and then 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.320 they're gonna push back, they're gonna, you know, they're gonna 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.880 evolve a resistance to something and suddenly you have to 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.000 change your you know, it's you have to change your 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.400 offense to meet their defense. But if you're if you 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.120 by creating like a quorum sensing drug according sensing drum 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.160 draw antiquorum sensing drug. You are You're you're messing with 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.440 their communication. You know, you're you're not um, you're not 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.080 really pushing them, You're just sort of breaking them up, right, 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.840 You're not sparking resistance. Yeah, and so they found that 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:37.160 like in like twenty six successive generations of different bacterial species, uh, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:41.120 that generation was still as sensitive as the first one was. Yeah, 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:44.240 they're not like learning to the fight back against it, 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.800 which is awesome because then it could conceivably last forever. 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.920 It could be like a permanent cure. I mean, I 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.600 feel like everlasting is a little optimistic when it comes 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.920 to an organisms as long lasting and as adaptable as 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.320 a bacteria have have proven to be. But still it's 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.000 an intriguing concept. It's a little boastful. But then again, 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:04.400 if you want, you know, you want to get picked 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.000 up by the media, and you want to you know, 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.920 if you study funded to say everlasting treatment for this, 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.600 and like whoa, I'll fund that. There are doctors using 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.440 quorum sensing or rather anti worm sensing drugs to fight 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.960 bacterial infections. Now that's probably what you guys are wondering. Yeah, 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.440 not really, You're right, not so much, except possibly in 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:31.840 some like traditional medicine practices. Um, there's an interesting article. Um, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.560 what publication was that in, Well, it wasn't in a publication. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.079 It was a clinical trial. The clinical trial website you 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.320 can check out all the clinical trials they've got going 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.240 on for for different things in the United States. And 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.440 there's a two thousand eight study that was investigating a 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:52.160 zithromycin as a potential drug and they were using it 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:57.839 to battle again Pseudomonas arugonosa ventilator associated pneumonia. And the 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.240 study did, in fact me to phase tube. It was 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.480 terminated because of financial issues, so we never got a 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.680 chance to see how this was going to turn out. Yeah, 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.439 the article I was thinking of was actually in Gizmodo, 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:14.240 and it was about John mccafee, he of the Security computer. Yeah, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.079 so apparently he was like, I've learned how to tackle um, 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.080 you know, computer viruses, I'm going to go after the 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:23.000 real thing. And he's down in Belize, like checking in 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:28.040 with like like traditional um like herbal practices and seeing 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.360 and U and looking into the possibility of like quorm 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:35.480 sensing um antiquorm sensing drug potential in those uh you know, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:40.280 those those herbal remedies. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, pretty interesting. Yeah, 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.280 interesting to read that. I thought that the author Juel 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.640 Johnson had to had a good take on in It's 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.960 all there to bring a little bit of skepticism to 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.560 to this, especially since Bailes doesn't necessarily have the vetting 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:58.520 system that we do for do drugs. Yeah, so they 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:01.440 were looking to uh in us the help of quorum 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.880 sensing for um all sorts of stuff like ear infections 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.360 and ulcers, biofilms on your teeth. I think they're looking 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.240 into a health wash, which would be handy. I don't 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.040 know what the dental Headgennis would you. I don't know 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:14.480 how they would feel about that, because what would they 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.040 do if we didn't have biofilms on our teeth anymore? Oh, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.040 I think we'd still figure out a way to mess 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.040 up our teeth pretty bad. Have confidence in our junk 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:26.000 food eating ability. Okay, Well, so, apart from what they're 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:30.480 doing in Bailie's, there are some issues with developing these 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.400 kind of drugs elsewhere, and some of the issues have 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.520 concerned the molecules being toxic to humans. According to a 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:42.040 related Scientific American article I was reading. In addition, they've 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.600 been having some troubles developing disruptors that work against many 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.200 different species of bacteria. Yeah, like they'll only it'll only 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.520 be good to cut off like one type of bacterious communication, 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.160 right right, Yeah, which might be good in the case 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:59.520 of a bacteria that's a prevalent, like the aforementioned Pseudomonis organosa, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:02.800 but it prevents you from having like a general sort 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.880 of antiquorum cure all right. Also, some of these have 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.240 like there's some issues with the shelf life, like getting 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.080 it to where you could actually like get it out 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.040 there and stores and have it like be an ode 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.600 for the counter thing and not a you know, harvested 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:17.600 on the site type of deal. And there's also a 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.480 really interesting study that came out of the University of Edinburgh, 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.840 and a couple of biologists there were saying, we'll hold 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.560 on a second here, like we were saying before, bacteria 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.040 that's simple. In fact, they may not even communicate in 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.720 the same way within a particular population. Yeah. And another 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:39.040 interesting fact comes from some research from the University of Edinburgh, 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:43.000 and that's that bacteria, like humans. As with humans, some 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.920 of them are better communicators than others. So if you 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.600 end up if you were able to encourage more of 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:53.120 the poor communicating um bacteria. This is actually beneficial. Yeah, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:54.880 this is beneficial because then the other guys can't get 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:56.920 a word in edgewise and really get going with their 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.480 with their quorum. It's kind of like if you didn't 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:01.240 want your part need to get off the hook. So 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:06.000 you like you invited mostly agoraphobic. Uh, you know people 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:07.960 that are just going to stand there, you know, looking 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.679 into their drinks. A lot of social anxiety. Yeah, so 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:12.639 that's so that's that's pretty cool in another way that 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.240 you could sort of you know, use this for your 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.200 to your benefit. Yeah. So that about it wraps it 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:23.280 up on talking to bacteria or bacteria talking with each other. Yeah. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.040 I was really surprised by it, um, because you just 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.200 don't think of all, right, I don't think of bacteria 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.520 speaking to each other, you know, or in any way communicating. 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.560 It just I tend to without thinking about it, you know, 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.239 view them as this very simple organism that kind of 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.600 works like like a very simple machine, you know. Yeah, 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:42.600 not the case. They have proved us wrong once again. 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:44.359 So if you guys want to send us any of 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.960 your thoughts on bacteria or bacteria communicating or just tell 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:49.880 us how much of a good communicator you are. Send 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.120 us an email science stuff at how Separate dot com. 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.560 I have to admit when you first mentioned quorum sensing 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:56.200 drugs to me, I thought it was something like out 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.560 of Dune or like some sci fi novel where there's 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:03.280 like a crazy sci fi drug. No. No, not like 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:09.960 the case. Um, hey, do you want to do listener mail? Yeah? 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.439 We actually got some awesome listener mail in just today, 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.320 not only male but package Yes, our very first factor, 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.040 which is super exciting from Australia. Yeah. I was worried 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.000 at first because one of the reasons we received some 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.000 of our fan mail from Australia is because we made 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.520 some comments about there being a lot of venomous creatures there, 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:30.879 and then people were some people were like, it's not 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.359 really that bad. It's like, you know, so there's kind 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:34.920 of a dialogue back and forth, and then there's a 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.320 comment on a comment. Do you remember that? That's very exciting? 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.240 So I went first, I'm like, oh my goodness, like 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.439 somebody's like mailed as a snake or a scorpion or something, 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.080 you know. Um, But as it turned out not, it's 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:50.080 actually two adorable little pretreated creatures. I got a Rodicent 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.560 bridge back with a bandanna, which is so cute. Dogs 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.800 your favorite animal. And I received a Lambergeyer, which is uh, 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.280 you know, the big majestic looking bird that's in the 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.920 Life series that drops bones from a great height and 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.880 then goes down and each the shattered remains. So they're 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:08.959 really cute. And they came with a letter. Yeah they 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:14.320 do the letter. Hi, Allison and Robert, good day from Australia. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.840 UM for hosting such an awesome podcast that makes my 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.160 commute so much more bearable. I need to do some presents. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.000 Here's a Rhodesian ridge back for Allison and a lambur 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.560 guy for Robert. If they behave perhaps they might you 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.840 might allow them to play with Katie's narwhale and Sarah's 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:35.920 awful lot that those guys. Thank you for a great 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.760 show and keep up the fantastic work. Best CC, Melbourne, Australia. PS. 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.920 How about a podcast on the Higgs Boson We might 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:49.640 find it soon? Excellent, Thank you very much. These are 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.160 really super cute. Yeah, we took up took a photograph 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:53.760 of and I'll see if I can't throw that up 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:55.920 on the Facebook and the lamber guy is going to 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.800 go up on the shelf next to Gamera. Hey. So yeah, 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.000 we've received a lot of of a really good listener 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:02.920 email lately, so we're going to go through some of 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:04.679 them today and we're pretty psyched that you guys are 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.560 written in. First up is Abdullah s and he wrote 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:10.240 in with his very first email to an HSW podcast, 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.560 and we are honored. So here's what he had to say. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.359 He wanted to give us a little info on how 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.399 to pronounce the Burgh Khalifa, the tallest tower that we 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.280 mentioned in our Space Elevator podcast. Remember talking about that, Yeah, yeah, 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:26.679 this is the one in Space Elevators. Yes, yes, this 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.320 was the one in Space Elevators. Indeed, Robert Um. So 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.040 he told us the correct pronunciation and he then he 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:35.960 was talking about how the tower was named and burge 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.000 actually means tower and Khalifa is the name of the 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.160 current president and it literally translates to tower of Khalifa. 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:47.960 So thanks, Abdullah, appreciate the info. We have a ton 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.960 of emails from lefties or lefty wanna bees, shall I say? 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.040