Dov Henis

Here is a note I posted elsewhere on Sept 2005:

I.

An article in The Scientist, Vol 17 | Issue 19 | 25 | Oct. 6, 2003,
"Microbial Co-op in Evolution", expresses in vague "scientifically sophisticated" verbiage plain obvious observations about cooperation in evolution.

Co-op in evolution started earlier than in microbial communities. It started between individual genes, who formed and elaborated cooperative associations, genomes.

Life has always been and still is a fractal affair, repetition of phenomena on ever more complex scale. It cannot be otherwise; it evolves. And surviving-proliferating life has always been a cooperative affair since cooperation is most successful for overall survival/proliferation.

II.

The same note, re life as a cooperative affair, I applied in
April 2005 re Scientific American's "How animals do business", F.B.M. de Waal, that traces and illuminates aspects of specific animals' inter-relationship.

III.

Additionally reflect on us, humans:

Some astounding numbers justify attention to our bacterial symbionts. There are ten times more bacteria cells colonizing a human than the number of human cells in the body (10^14 versus 10^13, respectively). Over 700 taxa can be found at a single site. The structures of communities vary tremendously. The gut might be considered New York City, whereas the skin is perhaps more like Memphis.