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Bacteria can smell
zidangus
Veteran
Following recent research by scientists at Newcastle University UK, bacteria have been observed to react to the smell of rival bacteria which is in the same area. Therefore scientists believe that bacteria have 4 of the 5 physical senses that humans have, that is they can see by responding to light, they can feel by responding to physical touch, taste through direct contact with environmental chemicals, and now smell by detecting airborn molecules. They only thing they are missing is the ability to hear. Therefore it begs the question "Can bacteria be considered a sentient being ?"
I myself have never considered bacteria to be a sentient being, but it does make you think where the line is which defines life to be sentient or not.
Anyway interesting research a link to the story is below
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10985313
metta to all sentient beings (where ever the line is drawn):)
I myself have never considered bacteria to be a sentient being, but it does make you think where the line is which defines life to be sentient or not.
Anyway interesting research a link to the story is below
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10985313
metta to all sentient beings (where ever the line is drawn):)
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Comments
If bacteria are bad, (like the ones which cause food poisoning) then they re not.
so make sure when you take antibiotics for an infection, that you only target the bad bacteria, and not the good.
:rolleyes:
From what I have learnt, a sentient being is one that may use logic and reasoning to determine action and reaction.
if it's just instinct or involuntary reflex - they aren't sentient.
But watch someone come along and prove me wrong....;)
That debate has been going on for a thousand years I think.
If it required logic, most of us would only be sentient part-time
metta to all sentient beings.
When a being evolves from being non-sentient, to sentient, I won't swat it any more.
deal?:D
Early scriptures in the Pali Canon and the conventions of the Tibetan Bhavachakra classify sentient beings into five categories—divinities, humans, animals, tormented spirits, and denizens of hell—although sometimes the classification adds another category of demonic beings between divinities and humans.[1]
It does not say what scriptures though...
According to Bhikkhu Bodhi on Accesstoinsight:
"Abstaining from taking life" has a wider application than simply refraining from killing other human beings. The precept enjoins abstaining from killing any sentient being. A "sentient being" (pani, satta) is a living being endowed with mind or consciousness; for practical purposes, this means human beings, animals, and insects. Plants are not considered to be sentient beings; though they exhibit some degree of sensitivity, they lack full-fledged consciousness, the defining attribute of a sentient being.
I wonder if there is an actual scriptural definition of "Sentient Being"?
metta to all
metta to all beings (even swat candidates)
When you think about it, the amount of bacteria I work with on a daily basis (and sequentially destroy) is about 1/4 the amount of cells in, say, a small rodent. So, cell for cell it's comparable.
It's interesting to think about.
We'll just stick with that explanation
For my own personal evaluation, a sentient being is one that can decide for itself whether inflicting harm or not inflicting harm, is a choice.
Animals need to hunt, but I have seen countless programmes on TV where animals have been close to their prey, and have posed no threat, because the NEED to hunt and kill was not present. Therefore, volitionally, they made a choice to override instinct and kill, anyway. I believe mammals and other vertebrates are able to make these choices....
I have also seen various programmes where animals actually unhindered, untrained and un-coerced, either lived alongside animals that would be considered their prey and not only existed in harmony but actually formed a mutually beneficial, (not to say symbiotic) relationship with them.
For example, a lioness took a small deer fawn under her wing (pardon the metaphor - I hope the lioness would forgive me!) and actually protected it from other animals, and stayed with it for many years. They bonded, amicably.
Cats and dogs do not always fight, and in fact, co-exist quite happily.
Bacteria, stinging insects, and insects which carry diseases, cannot make this evaluation, in my opinion.
A bacterium cannot think to itself, 'I'm not going to develop in this water tank, because ultimately, I would harm the person drinking, or bathing in the water.
A female mosquito carrying yellow fever, dengue fever, Chikungunya and malaria, cannot think to itself, "biting this person is going to bring them great risk, and I really cannot bring myself to do it". Its instinct and means of survival is to suck blood. It cannot know it is inflicting pain, it just does it.
Same with a fly.
It vomits onto foodstuffs, then sucks up the resulting fluid, but given that it can extract nutrition form many places, it lands on all manner of materials (like :bs:) to feed. Then lands on our cheese sandwich.... you know where I'm going with this, don't you?
Again, though - this is instinctual behaviour. It cannot prevent itself from spreading filth and disease.
Ergo, I have no qualms about taking antibiotics, or swatting said insects.
Now, I don't know whether my reasoning makes me correct, and I'm not suggesting I am right.
I'm merely telling you all how it is with me.
While I appreciate that while these 'beings' are alive, and need to do what they do in order to remain alive and multiply - I do not consider them sentient, because what they do has no logic, reasoning or essential cogitation.
Here is the video below and wiki post with the full story for anyone interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCjyWp3rEk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_the_lion
Bacteria, animals, plants and fungi are all sentient to one degree or another.
In animals the input from the senses are processed through some form of neural ganglia, this is what allows them to negotiate their world rather than simply exist in it as non-motile organisms do.
Bacteria, plants and fungi have senses such as photoreceptors which allows them to monitor and react to light levels, and chemoreceptors which allows them to react to the presence of chemicals. This information isn't processed, there is no reasoning, thought or consciousness that elicits any response.
In the case of a bacteria, if it chemosenses an increasing nutrient gradient on one side, then the flagellum (think tail) will move them up the gradient automatically. Non-motile bacteria will undergo cell division up the gradient so that their descendants are closer to the nutrient rich environment. It's not thought based behaviour any more than plants turning their leaves toward the sun is. It's automatic.
hahahahahahahaha.
no.
I saw that video of the lion before..... thanks for posting it, it's kind of what I meant.....
Palzang
Did you know that you have little mites living in the hair follicles of your eye lashes? That little fact always makes me shudder for some reason.
I tend to think the later, but again this is without any evidence to back me up, its just my gut feeling
Metta to all sentient beings
This kind of thinking is absolutely true for some like, say, a virus - nothing more than a molecular parasite, no more complex than two proteins and the genes that code for them. (compared to 10,000+ protein in humans)
As far as bacteria goes, what separates set programming in bacteria from set programming in plants/fungi? In flies? In Fish? In Humans? We're simply a mass collection of single-cell organisms (with the great invention of the nervous system, of course!). Really shows just how hazy the line is between sentient and not-sentient.
I would say sentient requires a nervous system of sorts, something more than involuntary reaction to cause/effect.
Metta to all sentient beings
I'll save spiders...throw 'em outside sometimes. But cockroaches and ants...sorry, they get squished. :crazy:
As for bacteria and what is sentient and what isn't, I don't know. I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about it. Life is life. Whether it is "sentient" or not is kind of irrelevant to me. Life is a web in which all parts make up the whole. Focusing on which parts of the web may be sentient or not is, to me, just another way to cling to the delusion of "self" being separate from everything else. The reason I brought up the fact that there are more bacteria and other microorganisms in our body than our body has cells was to point out this fact, that what we think of as "self" is not separate from the rest of the world. We wouldn't be alive if it weren't for these bacteria. They're part of us even if they're not technically part of us. You follow? The same goes for our very cells. Did you know that mitochondria, the little energy generators in virtually every cell in our body (OK, not RBCs, at least not when they're mature), are actually a symbiotic bacteria that moved in to stay millions of years ago? Now they have become an organelle of the cell, but yet they maintain their own DNA.
So where does "self" end and "other" start? Basically there is no answer. Even the depths of our bowels are "outside" the body.
Palzang
they are simple organisms... how can they smell
cockroaches ... yeah. ants -- no.
LOL that would definitely work .