SCIENCE LAB SCHEME : ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES [2]

'' These single-cell organisms can do things that we assume are limited to more complex organisms,'' said Shashank Shekhar, a biophysicist at Emory University in Atlanta.

'' They form this higher order structure, like what we do as humans.''

Scientists believe that the ability of single-cell creatures to form groups was a key step that led to the eventual evolution of multicellular life on Earth.

And the new findings spotlight the role played by physical conditions - and the interplay of predators and prey - in these cellular collaborations.

In the wild, stentors are found near the surface of ponds. The wider end of their bodies is fringed with ropelike cilia.

These cilia can fluctuate in a wave-like pattern to generate water currents that sweep in prey. To visualize these currents in the lab, Dr. Shekhar put drops of milk alongside stentors in a petri and then watched how the liquid flew under a microscope.

'' You see them create these swirls around their mouths that are just beautiful,'' he said.

He compared the image to the whirling cosmos of Van Gogh's '' The Starry Night.''

The World Students Society thanks Jack Tamisiea.