Category: Uncategorized

MODULAR LANGUAGE. “Imagine how complicated our language would be if every word had to have its own unique symbol. You can get some sense of that from Asian languages; written Mandarin Chinese, for example, uses tens of thousands of picture-like characters. However, these characters mostly represent syllables, and still get combined and rearranged in order to form words. Combining and arranging letters or characters allows us to convey many different ideas from a limited set of elements.” https://lnkd.in/eQAQ5eZ View in LinkedIn

SMALL NUMBER OF LETTERS. “In human language, sequence and combination matter. The English alphabet, for example, has only 26 letters, which can be arranged into hundreds of thousands of words. Move just one letter in the word “words” from the back to the front, and you end up with “sword,” something completely different. And on the level of sentences, “Jill ate the chicken” means something very different from “The chicken ate Jill.” Yet those sentences use the same four words.” https://lnkd.in/eQAQ5eZ View in LinkedIn

MASSIVE BREAKTHROUGH. “It really does look like we’ve stumbled upon the letters or words of a universal nematode language, the syntax of which we don’t yet fully understand.” https://lnkd.in/eSwxdxj View in LinkedIn

MISSING THE BOAT. “Animal communication systems have thus far failed to demonstrate anything remotely like our systems of phonology, semantics, and syntax, and the capacity to process even artificially created stimuli is highly limited, often requiring Herculean training efforts.” https://lnkd.in/e576Q3T View in LinkedIn

DYNAMIC LANGUAGE. “Our data show that C. elegans can engage in dynamic tailoring of the ascarosides that it has produced. This dynamic tailoring enables the worm to respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions and modulate the nature of its chemical message without having to synthesize new ascarosides de novo.” https://lnkd.in/dQ48vr2 View in LinkedIn

PREVAILING DOGMA. “There is no evidence for human-like language syntax in any nonhuman species.” (Chomsky) https://lnkd.in/eHTtV3v View in LinkedIn

MORE THAN PHEROMONES. “The nematode C. elegans secretes ascarosides as pheromones to induce development of the dauer larval stage at high population densities, as well as to control various behaviors, including male attraction to hermaphrodites, hermaphrodite attraction to males, avoidance, foraging behavior, and adult aggregation.” https://lnkd.in/dQ48vr2 View in LinkedIn

DARWIN KNEW. Worms have been mapped, counted, weighed, divided into species. We have ground them up to measure their chemistry, poisoned them in the soil to count their numbers, measured their impact on soil turnover, but really, we know next to nothing about this plentiful creature, let alone how to speak worm. But early indications show that they are far more complex than anyone ever thought, except Darwin (in his 1881 book, The formation of Vegetable Mould by the Action of Worms). https://lnkd.in/exyGWjD View in LinkedIn

DARKER MOTIVES. “The team also plans to continue deconstructing the language they have found among nematodes. For example, Sternberg wonders, how many different combinations of chemicals mean "food," or "mate," or "attack"? If the scientists can crack the code in terms of what different blends mean to different species, they can begin to interfere with the actions of the nematodes that wreak havoc across the world—leading to better eradication of plant pests, as well as human and animal parasites.” https://lnkd.in/d6Gc9fp View in LinkedIn

POISONED BUT NOT UNDERSTOOD. Despite the fact that nematodes (a type of worm) are immensely prevalent, and gather in large communities to mate and feed, barely a single publication can be found on how they communicate with one another. We barely give them credit for their complex societies. More is known about how to poison them that about their ecology. https://lnkd.in/efXjHUb View in LinkedIn