Page 138 - A Chain of Miracles

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A A Chain of Miracles
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INTELLIGENCE IN BACTERIA
In recent years, research into bacteria has revealed that these one-
cell organisms behave extremely intelligently, by responding to the
situation in their environment. According to the renowned molecular
biologist Michael Denton:
The amoeba, although the size of a small speck of dust, exhibits behav-
ioral strategies which seem objectively indistinguishable from those of
animals far higher up the scale. If an amoeba were the size of a cat, we
would probably impute to it the same level of intelligence as we do to
a mammal. Just how do such minute organisms integrate all the infor-
mation necessary to make such apparently calculated intelligent deci-
sions? …the way it [the amoeba] integrates all the information neces-
sary to pursue its prey, its decision to change direction, its persistence
in the pursuit when its prey escapes, the sudden breakout of the smaller
amoeba from its imprisonment in the interior of its captor at the mo-
ment when the wall of protoplasm was at its thinnest—all this remains
to be fully explained in molecular terms. 67
In the above excerpt, the final sentence is most noteworthy.
Amoebas’ behavior cannot be explained on a molecular level—by
chemical reactions or physical triggers. These monocellular organ-
isms consciously make decisions and carry them out. But interest-

ingly, they have neither brain nor nervous system. Each one is a sim-
ple cell made of proteins, fats and water.
Other examples of intelligent behavior are displayed by bacteria.
According to the July 1999 issue of the famous French science maga-
zine, Science et Vie, bacteria communicate with one another and make
collective decisions, based on the information they receive.
According to the Science et Vie article, this communication is the

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