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Pavlov's Bacteria?
sciencenow.sciencemag.org — We've all heard of Pavlov's dogs, the famous canines trained by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov to associate food with the sound of a bell. Now, scientists have found that bacteria may be capable of similar behavior--an ability never seen in such simple organisms.
tomboy501- 367 diggs
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- DangerCollie, on 05/12/2008, -2/+5Yeah? Well, let's see your bacteria chase a tennis ball. Then I'll be impressed. :)
- thcobbs, on 05/12/2008, -0/+6They don't have to chase it.... they're all over it!
- marjo9, on 05/12/2008, -2/+2we have?
- jondo85, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1If you read that magazine, then I am guessing it is true; perhaps it could have been modfied for digg :)
- Simplysped, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1oh snap
- goscript, on 05/12/2008, -1/+5I'd love to see a "Digg Bacteria" that triggers the bell only when a story deserves it.
- alllo, on 05/12/2008, -3/+4"Pavlov's bacteria" sounds like "Trained bacteria"
This is actually the matter of evolution and the ability to adapt to changing environment...- kurtu5, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1Ah but is the change analog to behavior modification in a neural network?
- radiantstorm, on 05/12/2008, -1/+2This is actually a much cheaper version of the canary in the mine shaft.
- OfficialJoe, on 05/12/2008, -2/+5All this proves is that we once assume in our arrogance that the human species is somehow removed from nature and uniquely capable of certain abilities that we classify as "psychological" when in fact, all of psychology has a biological base. Anyway, we know that cells respond to their environment in this way from studies done on "plant memory" (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j ... and even that it is intergenerational (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7106/ab ...
So why is this so surprising?- variant5, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1It's not: it's selection in action.
To your point: this has nothing to do with Pavlov, or even psychology for that matter. These responses are based on selection pressures and mutations across generations. Pavlovian responses are based on classical conditioning in a discrete organism.
- variant5, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1It's not: it's selection in action.
- karapuz, on 05/12/2008, -0/+3This is not Pavlovian behavior, this is "just" Artificial Selection.
Bacteria which didn't reduce metabolism grew better and out-competed the ones that had reduced their metabolism.
The only other explanation would be that the "parent" bacteria tough the "offspring" bacteria that reducing the metabolic rate is not required. Since there is no memory in the bacteria besides DNA this is just ridiculous.
If you could train several bacteria to react to environment change, that they would "remember", that would be Pavlovian behavior. - Wonderama, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1This isn't new, I learned this back in high school biology circa 1975. A single-celled bacterium with a primitive photo-receptor (sorry, don't remember the name) was alternately flashed with light, then shocked with a small electrical charge causing them to cringe (with horror, one assumes...) Flash-shock, rinse, repeat. After a while all they had to do was flash without the shock and the bacterium would cringe.
- AgentGulo, on 05/12/2008, -2/+1lolz, cruelty 2 bacteria, sounds like fun XD *grabs a can of lysol and some chlorine* This one's 4 all the pansies at PETA! *sprays desk and wipes clean* muwahahahahahaha
- alvarezg, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1There is no conditioning at work here. As karapuz says, this is natural selection for certain behaviors.
The classic light flash and mild acid experiment, Wonderama, was with planaria, a simple worm with an eye-spot. That was a case of conditioning. - mostafa68, on 05/22/2008, -0/+0This is an excellent work. For the first time experimentally shown that how learning can work. Definitely a nobel prize candidate.
- mostafa68, on 05/22/2008, -0/+0This is an excellent work. For the first time experimentally shown that how learning can work. Definitely a nobel prize candidate.
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