BACTERIA & BIOFILM
Communication between microorganisms represents one of the most important research areas. The ‘community’ of bacteria in the form of the natural biofilm or patina takes its bearing from these single needs: such individuals revise their own energetic need for the benefit of others thereby ensuring the survival and growth of the whole.
Being the oldest, smallest, most abundant and structurally simplest organism, bacteria are ubiquitous, diverse and variant, and therefore vital for all other life forms.
They require to be treated not only as indispensable motives, metaphors and models of knowledge, but increasingly as material and as a medium and method for acquiring it as well.
We live “in the age of bacteria” (Gould 1993), in close symbiosis with trillions of bacteria inside and on us which has a major impact on both the ecology of the world as well as on human survival and well-being. (Blaser 2014, Latour 2007)