Great article. I loved this bit:
“We put a lot of weight on a life form’s ability to think
independently,” Relman says, but microbes have achieved fantastic
evolutionary success by operating on a very different principle.
Microbial communities are filled with examples of self-sacrifice for
the benefit of the larger colony. They form physically close
communities in which some cells exist solely to provide structural
support or protection for others.
I know some of the vegetarians on the list have ethical objections to killing cows and pigs for food, but if I were forced to choose between killing a cow and killing one of these microbial communities, the choice would be easy. The cow's dead meat.
Miles