[Bacteria] have an incredibly complicated chemical lexicon that ... allows bacteria to be multicellular. In the spirit of TED they're doing things together because it makes a difference.
Interpretation
Bacteria communicate to form complex communities, highlighting the importance of collaboration.
In this quote, Bonnie Bassler emphasizes the remarkable ability of bacteria to use a sophisticated system of chemical signals to communicate with one another. This communication enables them to coordinate activities and function as multicellular organisms, illustrating the concept that working together enhances survival and efficacy in nature, much like in human society.
In practice
In a biology class discussing microbial life, this quote can illustrate how even the simplest organisms rely on teamwork.
We've all been sick; we're all afraid of infection. I think the easiest application to help people understand what quorum sensing is and why it's important to study is to tell them that if we could make the bacteria either deaf or mute, we could create new antibiotics.
The problem [with genetic research] is, we're just starting down this path, feeling our way in the dark. We have a small lantern in the form of a gene, but the lantern doesn't penetrate more than a couple of hundred feet. We don't know whether we're going to encounter chasms, rock walls or mountain ranges along the way. We don't even know how long the path is.
Science would not be what it is if there had not been a Galileo, a Newton or a Lavoisier, any more than music would be what it is if Bach, Beethoven and Wagner had never lived. The world as we know it is the product of its geniuses-and there may be evil as well as beneficent genius-and to deny that fact, is to stultify all history, whether it be that of the intellectual or the economic world.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics has the same degree of truth as the statement that if you throw a tumblerful of water into the sea, you cannot get the same tumblerful of water out again.
although science could pinpoint the exact spot in the brain that ignites rage, they had yet to identify the location that produces love.
The existence of nuclear weapons presents a clear and present danger to life on Earth.
A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.
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