oh dear, oh dear. bill?

Hmmmm. It may not be smarts as much as a high rate of mutation among this particular kind of bacteria. To be able to survive insecticides, for example, we know that a small percentage of locusts which are immune to a poison can, in a few years, replace the ones who were killed in the last mass extermination.

This particular bacteria has developed the means of exchanging genetic material. A lucky break for the bacteria, but I think scientists confuse things by calling that material "information", leading us to believe that it is taken in and calculated as we read blogs or a computer reads punch cards.

(The computer, incidentally, isn't smart at all. It's an idiot which can only do what it is told.)

I'm not attempting to undermine the significance of the discovery, merely pointing out that the "information" metaphor is misleading. Kind of like calling a gene "selfish". Chromosones do not by themselves have enough biomass to construct a brain capable of having such an emotion.

wow. I'm speechless.

Hey if I can learn to work a computer then a bacteria should have no problem learning to outsmart a scientist!

What can we eat?
A friend of mine's daughter started to develop breasts when she was four, it was the hormones used in cheap chickens. When they changed 'brands' everything returned to normal. (I know I'm off the subject, but it's hard to keep tags on what the farmers are allowed to give the animals)

Jeff: Everytime Science thinks it knows the Universe, something new pops up to illustrate the limitations of the human mind.

At least they have the guts to keep revising what they know.