— In 1932, Winston Churchill predicted that in fifty years “we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately.” Now, almost eighty years later, we may finally be getting close to producing in vitro meat – muscle tissue grown in the lab –without the rest of the animal. Continue reading Food of the future: in vitro meat?
— Just as a football game cannot be played with just one person, many tasks performed by cells require multiple players, too. For many bacteria to act as one, proper communication is key. One way of talking to a neighboring bacterium is called quorum sensing, in which one bacterium releases special molecules, called autoinducers, into the environment so that other bacteria can sense and respond to them [1]. Another way, used not only in bacteria but also in plants and animals, involves physically bridging two cells and exchanging specific molecules with each other through a microscopic tunnel. Continue reading Nanotubes: a new way for germs to connect