You think of yourselves as human beings, but I think of you as 99 percent bacterial.

Source: "How Bacteria 'Talk.'" TED2009. Feb. 2009. Conference Presentation. Additional Information: This quote is from molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler's 2009 TED Talk about how bacteria communicate to each other through chemical signals. Says Bassler, as a person who studies bacteria, she knows that there are ten times more bacterial cells than human cells and a hundred times more bacterial genes than human genes on a human being -- thus, depending on how you look at it, a person is only one- to ten-percent human. Bassler goes on to explain the important roles that these microscopic lifeforms play and how they carry out these functions. Watch the fascinating TED Talk here: Bonnie Bassler - How Bacteria "Talk"

“How Bacteria ‘Talk.'” TED2009. Feb. 2009. Conference Presentation.