Biological complexity; bacteria sense touch (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 11:49 (2438 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Touching bacteria releases calcium ions much as our cells use ion transport for sensing touch:
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-bacteria.html

QUOTE: "For humans, our sense of touch is relayed to the brain via small electrical pulses. Now, University of Colorado Boulder scientists have found that individual bacteria, too, can feel their external environment in a similar way.
"In a new study, CU Boulder researchers have demonstrated that E. coli bacteria cells get excited when poked, sending out voltage induced calcium ion signals—the same way a vertebrate's sensory nervous system works.”

A very important breakthrough for those of us who believe it is possible for brainless organisms to be intelligent, although it is quite surprising to find a dualist who believes that intelligence can survive the death of the brain and yet refuses to believe that intelligence can exist in organisms that have no brain. All the signs are that bacteria are sentient, cognitive, decision-making, intelligent beings, and if they have some kind of equivalent to the nervous system, it may well be that they have some kind of equivalent to the brain itself.