Biologists who work on these organisms are more and more inclined to see the senses of bacteria as attuned to the presence and activities of other cells around them, not just to washes of edible and inedible chemicals. The receptors on the surfaces of bacterial cells are sensitive to many things, and these include chemicals that bacteria themselves tend to excrete for various reasons—sometimes just as overflow of metabolic processes. This may not sound like much, but it opens an important door. Once the same chemicals are being sensed and produced, there is the possibility of coordination
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