Dr. Glen D’Souza

So for instance, we've looked at the ocean, right?

And about 10% of all ocean microbes do at least have one weapon.

Most have many multiple weapons that they carry.

But now if you look at the plant root, for instance, I don't know what's happening there.

That's like an entire sort of war zone.

The plant root has like, I think, 30% of all microbes that carry at least one weapon.

Yeah, exactly.

So if you look at the microbiome of plant roots, I mean, you can imagine the plant root is an extremely happy place for microbes to stay, right?

So, you know, the plant keeps on throwing out stuff or teeny-weeny pockets of sugar, candies, etc., that I think bacteria can go happily on.

And if you're now in this amazing environment, you need to make sure you get it and your neighbor doesn't, right?

So it makes sense to carry a lot of weapons out there.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, as Ben mentioned, right, like getting food, no one has thought about that until now, right?

Everyone thinks so.

You have a weapon, you kill, you get territory happy, or you have a contested resource, you displace your weaker competitor, you get access to your pot of gold, and you're sitting there happily.

But the world is not a happy place, right?

So you will have these cycles of feast and famine, right?

You might be on an amazing nutrient patch, but suddenly there might be no nutrients out there.

So how do you grow, right?

You need to grow.