The recent blockbuster film Avatar takes place on an imaginary world were all living things are interconnected forming making the whole planet a type of single intelligence. This biological version of the ‘Gaia’ hypothesis James Lovelock may now actually exist on Earth, albeit in more limited way. Peter Nielsen of Aarhus University (Denmark) has shown that certain bacteria living the seabed seem to be able to communicate with counterparts great distances away in more shallow water. “The discovery has been almost magic” says Nielsen “ It goes against everything we have learned so far. Micro-organisms can live in electric symbiosis across great distances..” Nielsen believes a network of tiny conductive protein wires between the bacteria makes the communication possible. Yuri Gorby of the J.Craig Venter Institute in San Diego have spotted such wires in the lab but not as yet in natural surroundings. The colonies of bacteria thus effectively act as one super-organism. Avatar just may have shown a glimpse into discoveries to science fact, not just science fiction. But if there is universal linkage it is worrying to know that so many species are being lost yearly; is this akin to cutting pieces out of the whole biological organism, and if so, how long will it be until it can take no more.
