Bekuz cellz ain't az stoopid az we thunk

[LARA]

http://physorg.com/news132247855.html

""What we have found is the first evidence that bacteria can use sensed cues from their environment to infer future events," said Saeed Tavazoie, an associate professor of molecular biology, who conducted the study along with graduate student Ilias Tagkopoulos and postdoctoral researcher Yir-Chung Liu.

 The research team, which included biologists and engineers, used lab experiments to demonstrate this phenomenon in common bacteria. They also turned to computer simulations to explain how a microbe species' internal network of genes and proteins could evolve over time to produce such complex behavior.

"The two lines of investigation came together nicely to show how simple biochemical networks can perform sophisticated computational tasks," said Tavazoie. "

The paper is Predictive Behavior Within Microbial Genetic Networks Tagkopoulos et al. Science 6 June 2008  for people with more cash than me who have access to Science.


Hey, E. coli really can learn some basic stuff!  But what I really want to know is can chaonoflagellates be taught how to play chess?  

[Will]

Choanoflagellates are exciting little creatures, being the closest known unicellular relative to multicellular life. I'd say that gives them a leg up, or rather a flagellum up, on other unicellular life. Still, I never would have guessed that an organism that simple could develop intuition. Fascinating stuff.