References & Sources

One, two, . . . 20,000 slime mold cells

Slime mold cells secrete a protein that helps them count how many of them are in a group.

References:

Brock, D.A., and R.H. Gomer. A secreted factor regulating aggregate size in Dictyostelium. Meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology. June. Charlottesville, Va.

Sources:

Richard H. Gomer
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Rice University
Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Mail Code 140
6100 South Main Street
Houston, TX 77251-1892

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 4, July 24, 1999, p. 59. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.