A few months back I read a book titled A Short History of Nearly Everything. It really enjoyed the book. It was chocked full of interesting history, related people and developments, and factoids. One of the simplest and best was that the human body has about 10x the bacterial cells as human. That’s staggering enough, 1 trillion human cells, 10 trillion bacterial, but a great presentation I just watched on the communication mechanisms of bacterial cells added that there’s about 100 x more genetic code in those bacteria.

The presentation is about the ways in which bacteria communicate. Apparently there is both an intra and inter-species mechanisms and scientists has successfully mimicked the molecules (hormones) involved. The hope is the work will lead to the next generation of antibiotics (a development that is seriously needed.) Check out the talk, one of many great TED talks.