News Life

Bacterial neighbors get mean

On a pretty Indiana hillside, it's microscopic mutually assured destruction

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Even without parking spaces, office refrigerators or other incitements to nastiness, bacteria in the wild can get downright spiteful.

IFFY NEIGHBORHOOD On an Indiana hillside (left), strains of bacteria that live only meters apart produce different toxins. Experiments show that some combinations of neighbors are deadly (top right, bacterial growth in center of lab dish was stopped by toxin) and others are benign (bottom right).