Bacterial Communication

I read an article yesterday about a type of bacteria that creates snow and rain. The principle action here is that the bacteria promote freezing at a lower temperature, and therefore create little ice crystals around themselves (snow). The ice crystals damage the structure of plants, and this in turn allows the bacteria easier access to the plants. These bacterium can be swept up into the air, where they promote freezing and create snow, that then falls to earth as rain.

Now, aside from agricultural ramifications of this, I’m fascinated by what can almost appear to be purposeful action on the part of the bacterium. I was discussing this with a friend, Patrick, and I pointed out that most likely it’s just natural selection (an organism has a property that promotes freezing, this helps said organism get more food, organism can reproduce more, offspring have same property, it spreads and so on), but Patrick responded with the most interesting points: a) elephants communicate using subharmonics; b) one ant colony has colonized most of the earth; and c) there is so much about this world that we don’t understand.

And that’s the part that leaves me twirling, the mystery of it all, the idea of organisms communicating to one another in a language that is so different from ours that we can’t even recognize it as language. The poet in me imagines the trees whispering to one another, telling stories of leafy greens and blues to one another in the darkness, clouds of bacteria swirling toward the sky focused intently on the chill of ice and the fall of rain, elephants calling out across the plains speaking of water and dust and the joy of the rich, cool mud. This reminds me to take the time to walk in the world, quietly, and listen to all the songs I cannot hear, but that are surely there.