First multicellularity: algae (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 11, 2016, 12:38 (3116 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Another important breakthrough. The researchers do not seem to doubt that the cells DO communicate with one another, and if we follow Margulis, this would seem to be the key to evolutionary development: communication between cells.
DAVID: Please describe how they communicate, if you disagree that they do it through molecular reactions. - I quoted the researchers themselves: “How the cells of the plant communicate with one another remains unknown.” I think it's a bit unfair to expect me to provide the answer. But of course there has to be a material method of communication. Do humans communicate by telepathy? Our lungs provide air, our tongue and lips make movements, our vocal cords vibrate, and in someone else's ear there are tiny hair cells translating the vibrations into electrical signals that are sent through nerves to the brain, which interprets the signals. Does that mean we are automatons? Other organisms also use sounds, or chemicals, or movements. You try to confine communication to the means of communicating; it also involves the information to be communicated by one cell or set of cells to another, the processing of that information by the cells, and decisions on the actions to be taken. It would be more appropriate to ask how they come to their decisions. And the answer is: we don't know.