Bacteria Might Communicate Using Radio Waves

This extremely exciting article by Sebastian Anthony on April 25, 2011 shows that single-celled organisms (i.e. bacteria) communicate through vibration.  It makes sense since cells are mostly filled with water and what do we know about the electrical conduction of water (electricity being another vibration)?  It conducts electricity as fast as lightening.  Many homeopaths have long believed that homeopathy transmits a vibration to the human body to effect a change in cellular communication.

“New findings by researchers at Northeastern University in Boston shows that single-celled bacteria such as E. coli might communicate “within a community” using similar radio waves to those used in AM and FM radio transmissions.

The research revolves around a feature called circular DNA (DNA loops), which is found in simple organisms like viruses and bacteria. As free electrons move around these loops, a radio wave can be produced — and as quantum objects, these electrons can also take on different energy levels. It is posited that these two factors could allow bacteria to transmit radio waves at frequencies of 0.5, 1 and 1.5KHz.

The idea of bacteria emitting radio waves isn’t new. In 2009, Luc Montagnier published one of the most controversial studies of all time — it kind of proved homeopathy — but critics pointed out that single-celled organisms lacked the ability to create radio waves, casting a dark shadow of doubt over Montagnier’s research. Today’s findings put Montagnier’s work, and homeopathy’s efficacy, back in the realm of reality.

More importantly, though, if simple organisms can communicate using radio waves — and have been communicating using radio waves for billions of years — it would shake the entire bedrock of modern science. Montagnier’s work suggests that cells can send electromagnetic imprints of itself to other, remote cells, but why stop there? If human cells also communicate using radio waves, we might be able to create a digital, silicon-based interface for ‘hacking’ our physiological infrastructure. Furthermore, depending on the range of a cell’s wireless communication range, this new finding might even go some way to explaining ‘fringe sciences’ like telepathy and clairvoyance.

The most most immediate implications are in the realm of medicine, though. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, also has circular DNA — and if we can communicate with HIV, then we can probably control it, too.”

This ExtremeTech article (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/84198-bacteria-might-communicate-using-radio-waves) was based off the articles below found in Technology Review (a physics blog) (http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26670/) and Arxiv.org (http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3113).  Both of the articles this article was based off are included below.

How Bacteria Could Generate Radio waves (blogged by kfc 04/25/2011)

“The notion that bacteria can transmit radio waves is controversial. But physicists now say they know how it could be done. 

Can bacteria generate radio waves?

On the face of it, this seems an unlikely proposition. Natural sources of radio waves include lightning, stars and pulsars while artificial sources include radar, mobile phones and computers. This is a diverse list. So it’s hard to see what these things might have in common with bacteria that could be responsible for making radio waves.

But today, Allan Widom at Northeastern University in Boston and a few pals, say they’ve worked out how it could be done.

They point out that many types of bacterial DNA take the form of circular loops. So they’ve modelled the behaviour of free electrons moving around such a small loop, pointing out that, as quantum objects, the electrons can take certain energy levels.

Widom and co calculate that the transition frequencies between these energy levels correspond to radio signals broadcast at 0.5, 1 and 1.5 kilohertz. And they point out that exactly this kind of signal has been measured in E Coli bacteria.

Let’s make one thing clear: this is a controversial area of science. The measurements of bacterial radio waves were published in 2009 by Luc Montagnier, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008 for the discovery of HIV. However, Montagnier is a controversial figure and it’s fair to say that his claims are not accepted by most mainstream biologists.

However, one of the criticisms of the work was that there is no known mechanism by which bacteria can generate radio waves. That criticism may now no longer hold.

That means Widom and co may be able to kickstart more work in this area. It is well known that bacterial and other types of cells use electromagnetic waves at higher frequencies to communicate as well as to send and store energy. If cells can also generate radio waves, there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t exploit this avenue too.

More science please!”

Electromagnetic Signals from Bacterial DNA

 A. Widom, J. Swain, Y. N. Srivastava, S. Sivasubramanian

(Submitted on 15 Apr 2011)

“Abstract: Chemical reactions can be induced at a distance due to the propagation of electromagnetic signals during intermediate chemical stages. Although is is well known at optical frequencies, e.g. photosynthetic reactions, electromagnetic signals hold true for muck lower frequencies. In E. coli bacteria such electromagnetic signals can be generated by electric transitions between energy levels describing electrons moving around DNA loops. The electromagnetic signals between different bacteria within a community is a “wireless” version of intercellular communication found in bacterial communities connected by “nanowires”. The wireless broadcasts can in principle be of both the AM and FM variety due to the magnetic flux periodicity in electron energy spectra in bacterial DNA orbital motions.”

For the full article of this abstract: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1104/1104.3113v1.pdf

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