Humans weren't the first engineers, doctors and farmers – bacteria, plants and animals have lots to teach us
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Wednesday, April 19, 2023
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Yet we often ignore the achievements of species that preceded us by billions of years.
Key Points:
- Yet we often ignore the achievements of species that preceded us by billions of years.
- Bacteria, plants, fungi, insects, birds, whales and other species demonstrate language, engineering, science, medicine, agriculture and more.
Speaking nature’s language
- Now, scientists from around the world are collaborating as part of the Cetacean Translation Initiative to use powerful AI algorithms and decode the language of sperm whales.
- Plants communicate with each other using hormones such as jasmonate, which redirects resources from growth to repairing damage.
- Meanwhile, bacteria have been “talking” to each other for billions of years by exchanging chemical messages via hormone-like molecules called autoinducers.
- Studies into premature babies have shown the relationship between gut bacteria and human cells are crucial for cognitive development.
Skilled engineers
- It is a permanent building site where bacteria, insects and humans alike create cities.
- The engineering skills of honeybees are so sophisticated that a honeybee expert and a group of engineers used an algorithm inspired by honeybees to resolve internet traffic problems.
- Bacteria are skilled engineers too.
- Indeed, the entire planet was turned into a kind of bacterial internet three billion years ago.
Doctors and surgeons
- Viruses invade bacteria and hijack their cellular machinery to make copies of themselves – a process which kills the bacteria.
- Bacterial bodies produce enzymes that attack and kill virus DNA, a technique known as Crspr.
- But ants from the species Megaponera analis, found in sub-Saharan Africa, are talented surgeons.
- These ant surgeons were so effective that patients were spotted on the battlefield the next day.
Successful farmers
- In turn, ambrosia beetles transport fungus spores in a pouch-like structure in their gut to tunnels bored into trees.
- So, these tiny beings were all farmers millions of years before humans had even thought of it.
- In so doing, this newly discovered wisdom could help us resolve the environmental crisis caused by our civilisation.