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Why this is interesting is because in the past decade we have found that this is not just some anomaly of this ridiculous,
這個發現之所以有趣，是因為在過去十年間，我們發現這種現象不只局限在這種古怪的、
glow-in-the-dark bacterium that lives in the ocean -- all bacteria have systems like this.
住在大海中、會在黑暗中發光的細菌，而是所有的細菌都有類似的系統。
So now what we understand is that all bacteria can talk to each other.
由此，我們發現所有細菌都是可以彼此交談的。
They make chemical words, they recognize those words,
它們制造化學文字，同時也能夠辨認這些文字，
and they turn on group behaviors that are only successful when all of the cells participate in unison.
然后表現只有當所有細胞齊心協力才能成功的集體行為。
We have a fancy name for this: we call it quorum sensing.
我們為這種行為取了一個新潮的名字，稱作：聚量感應。
They vote with these chemical votes, the vote gets counted, and then everybody responds to the vote.
就象用化學物質投票，再對票量加以統計，然后所有細胞都要服從最后的投票結果。
What's important for today's talk is that we know that there are hundreds of behaviors that bacteria carry out in these collective fashions.
今天演講最重要的一點是，我們已經知道細菌有數百種以上的這種集體行為。
But the one that's probably the most important to you is virulence.
其中對大家來說，最關心的應該還是細菌的致病性。
It's not like a couple bacteria get in you and they start secreting some toxins -- you're enormous, that would have no effect on you. You're huge.
并不是說少量細菌進入你體內后就馬上開始分泌毒素。相對它們來說，你是個龐然大物，少量細菌對你不會有任何的影響。
What they do, we now understand, is they get in you, they wait, they start growing, they count themselves with these little molecules,
我們發現，它們是先進入你的體內，然后等待，開始不斷復制增長，它們由統計小分子的數目來估計自身的實力，
and they recognize when they have the right cell number that if all of the bacteria launch their virulence attack together,
當確定有足夠的細胞數后，所有細菌一起發動致病攻擊，
they are going to be successful at overcoming an enormous host.
這樣它們就能成功攻陷巨大的宿主。
Bacteria always control pathogenicity with quorum sensing. That's how it works.
細菌總是以聚量感應來控制其致病性。這就是它們運作的原理。
