What Do Bacterial Conversations Consist of, According to Fatima Alzahra'a Alatraktchi?

On TED Talks Daily, Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi says bacteria coordinate by communicating, as people do, but with signaling molecules instead of words. When the cells are few, the molecules drift off, like a shout in an empty desert. When the cells are many, the molecules accumulate, the bacteria sense that they are not alone, and they keep count until there are enough of them to start a shared action. A bacterial conversation, she says, is an initiative and a reaction: one cell produces a molecule, and others respond to it. Her lab spies on that traffic in a patient's blood or spit by firing electrons into the sample.