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Erach,
You can place the experiment where you deem fit. If in the serendipitous circumstance this experiment is used then I am sure there are ways of ensuring that credit is tracked back to the right owners. - Hide quoted text -
> Dear T<>, > Do you have any difficulties if I place this experiment on > comp.ai.philosophy ---- I wonder at the kooks there (like me). >
> People may read the experiment and do it ---- and steal your design. > But it would be reported. >
> You (or me) could search the bionet groups and post it there too. >
> Or you might say, let the article come on "Jeev". >
> Erach >
>
> On 4/10/07,
>> Erach,
>>
>> I have designed 2 experiments for you. If these experiments do not yield
>> results it would NOT mean that your hypothesis is wrong. There are
>> limitations in the experiments. However, if these experiments do give
>> results, then it would mean that your hypothesis about training bacteria
>> is indeed very plausible.
>>
>> The first experiment is aimed at training bacteria with temporal signals
>> and the second experiment is aimed at training bacteria using spatial
>> signals.
>> Plate the E.coli species on a petri-dish with a glucose based medium.
>> After 12 hours transfer a colony of the bacteria on the petri-dish to
>> another petri-dish with a lactose based medium. After another 12 hours
>> transfer a colony from the lactose medium to another fresh glucose
>> medium
>> and repeat the cycle by eventually transferring to another fresh lactose
>> medium. If after days/weeks, a situation arises wherein the bacteria
>> produceses the enzyme beta-galactosidase even when it is present in the
>> glucose medium it would mean that it has already prepared itself for its
>> transfer to the lactose medium. If in case bacteria do contain the
>> enzyme
>> in lactose medium, it speaks a lot as 12 hours would see several
>> generations of the bacterium arise and fall. If the knowledge is passed
>> then we have something to report. . It would be very ambitious to expect
>> the bacteria to start time coordinated production of the enzyme. This is
>> unlikely.
>>
>>
>> Plate the E.coli species in a petridish. The medium of this petri-dish
>> is
>> to be specially designed. It has to have strips of glucose medium and
>> strips of lactose medium on it. There are several methods of plating
>> bacteria on a petri-dish. Employ one of them that yields single cell
>> colonies of the bacteria. Even a first year biotech student should be
>> able
>> to do this for you. Such methods involve making a path in the media. All
>> growth takes place in the path that is made in the media. Hence after a
>> few days what is observed is that the path has been infested with
>> bacteria
>> and as the distance from the starting point in the path increases the
>> density of the infestation decreases. If the infestation on the glucose
>> strips have beta-galactosidase then we can say that the bacteria are
>> likely to have evolved to overcome the uncertainty of the medium that
>> their subsequent generations would land on.
>>
>>
>
COMMENTS ON THIS EXPERIMENT
The experimenter may need to modify the time-period from 12 hours to a lesser period.
Also, no biofilms are included in this experiment to maintain the simplicity of this
Experiment and make it more reproducible. Biofilms are networks of bacteria which
Can potentially have more intelligence than an individual bacterium.