Spatiotemporal patterns Notes on Myxoccocus xanthus

Steve Haltiwanger MD, CCN 9/13/2010

I thought you might be interested in the idea that the spatiotemporal patterns
created by Myxoccocus xanthus have the similar geometry as standing waves. I
think investigation of the role that frequency and phase play in pattern formation in
nature has merit. Examples of pattern formation on inorganic materials can be seen
by examining some of the research down with sound and mechanical vibrations.
It appears to me that in addition to chemosensory signaling controlling selforganization that electromagnetic interactions are influencing the growth patterns
and pattern formation of bacterial swarms. Every chemical reaction that produces a
movement of charge will also produce electromagnetic fields. I believe that
experiments that involve specific frequencies of electromagnetic fields will also show
significant changes in the pattern formation and the chemistry as well as genetic
expression. Such experiments may assist in increasing the overproduction of specific
valuable metabolites.
These swarming colonies contains millions of cells that act collectively. These
bacteria characteristically exhibit coordinated movement. One current hypothesis is
that environmental cues such as chemical signaling create dynamic patterns. It is my
opinion that the liquid crystal and semiconductive properties of the
proteins+membranes will also respond to EMF's much like the liquid crystals in
electronic displays/monitors.
The prey response with the formation of parallel rippling waves is very possibly
initiated by the biophotons produced by the 'prey bacteria' creating an
chemical/electromagnetic response in the Myx. xanthus swarm.
It is my hypothesis that the exposure of bacterial colonies to electromagnetic fields
in the form of biophotons cause the optoelectronic structures (liquid crystals at both
molecular scale and organism scale) to produce interference patterns and that
biophotons play a regulatory role in cellular physiological processes. These
interference patterns also act a macroscopic scale to organize cell to cell
communication which influences the movement and activity of the organisms
themselves into self-organizing patterns and swarming behavior (Galle et al., 1991;
Unknown, 2000).
Steve Haltiwanger MD, CCN
915-203-0719

Below are examples created by sound waves also by mechanical vibrations at certain
frequencies-- Key search terms are Cymatics, chladni, also "standing waves",
bacteria + biophotons,
At the end are some patterns created by Myxoccocus Xanthus

http://www.lumen.nu/rekveld/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/cymatics.jpg
Hans Jenny passed soundwaves through a plate covered in a medium (like sand) to
generate patterns (see: Cymatics). You can actually do this experiment at the Science
museum by drawing a taut rubber belt, like a violin bow, down the side of a metal
plate covered in sand you can get patterns to appear. (Another hint that the material world
is made up of frequencies of energy. Look into the natural musical scale and the musical
universe for further information on that.)

http://www.kindagamey.com/bimages/universe/cymatics.jpg

Pictures of Sound:
Making Invisible Vibrations Visible
Another pioneer in this arena was Dr. Hans Jenny. A Swiss medical doctor and a scientist,
Hans Jenny realized the importance of vibration and sound and set out to study them
from a unique angle. His fascinating experiments into the study of wave phenomena
(which he called cymatics, from the Greek kyma, meaning wave) provide nothing less
than pictures of how sound influences matter.
In the 1960s, Dr. Jenny placed sand, fluid and powders on metal plates, which he vibrated
with a special frequency generator and a speaker. His experiments produced beautiful and
intricate patterns that were unique to each individual vibration (see photographs below).
Moreover, these varying patterns remained intact as long as the sound pulsed through the
substance. If the sound stopped, the pattern collapsed. For many, these experiments show
that sound can indeed alter form, that different frequencies produce different results, and
that sound actually creates and maintains form.
http://www.practicalspirituality.info/sound-words-and-your-health.html
The photographs below are taken from Dr. Jenny's work in cymatics. Used with
permission from the two-volume edition of Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena,
2001 MACROmedia, 219 Grant Road, Newmarket, NH 03857. www.cymaticsource.com.

http://www.practicalspirituality.info/JennyCymaticImages.jpg
Although best known for his stunning cymatic images, Dr. Jenny was also an artist and
musician as well as a philosopher, historian and physical scientist. Perhaps most
important, he was a serious student of natures ways with keen powers of observation.
Whether it was the cycle of the seasons, a birds feathers, a rain drop, the formation of
weather patterns, mountains or ocean wavesor even poetry, the periodic table, music or
social systemsDr. Jenny saw an underlying, unifying theme: wave patterns, produced
by vibration.
Wherever we look, we can describe what we see in terms of periodicities and
rhythmicities, he wrote. When nature creates anything it creates in this periodic style. 1
For him, everything reflected inherent patterns of vibration involving number, proportion
and symmetrywhat he called the harmonic principle. Dr. Jenny encouraged
continuing research into the wave phenomenon. The purpose of such studies, he
explained, was to hear the systems of Nature. What we want to do is, as it were, to
learn to hear the process that blossoms in flowers, to hear embryology in its
manifestations and to apprehend the inwardness of the process, he wrote.
http://www.practicalspirituality.info/sound-words-and-your-health.html

February 9th, 2006

Cymatics and chladni patterns
I am forever amazed at the power of the interaction between sound vibrations and
matter. The principle is beautifully illustrated in the work of Hans Jenny in his book
Cymatics, and in the research of Ernst F.F. Chladni. Their experiments involved setting

a vibration in motion onto a metal plate, or water, or other viscous fluid, and watching the
pattern develop.
Metal shavings against a flat magnetized surface where, with time, a vibration puts the
filings into a remarkable pattern, but then start expanding into a 3-dimensional pattern as
the filings stand on top of each other.
http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2006/02/09/cymatics-and-chladni-patterns/

The universal nine octave cycle (ties in to schumann resonance as well as cymatics ie.
prof dr hans jenny) and also depicts the inside of a vortex ie. phi spiral. (this is where the
solfeggio scale comes from)
This is from walter russells book "the universal one" published in 1926
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showpost.php?p=509992&postcount=7

One way of defining the golden mean:

The September 28, 1999 New York Times carried an article by James Glanz entitled
``Scientists Discover New Clues to Earthquakes' Deadly Vibrations.'' He is referring to
the similarity between the surface manifestation of certain tremors and the phenomenon
of ``oscillons.'' Oscillons were named and first studied by Paul Umbanhowar (now at
Northwestern University) and colleagues in 1996. They studied the behavior of spherical
copper beads in a vibrating tray, and found, at certain frequencies, stable repeating
patterns, as in this figure

An oscillon in a vibrating tray of copper beads. Image courtesy of

Paul Unbanhowar, Northwestern University Physics Department.

The experiments relevant to the behavior of terrain were carried out by Jay Fineberg and
O. Lioubashevski (Racah Institute of Physics), Y. Hamiel, Z. Reches, and A. Agnon
(Geology Department) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This time the medium was
thin mud, the vibrations were in the range 60-100 cycles per second, and the
following phenomena were observed. (This picture appeared in the Times).

The oscillation of oscillons in a saucer-full of a suspension of potters' clay. Scale: frame

width = 4cm. Time interval between pictures = 32 msec. Image courtesy of Jay Fineberg,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. http://www.ams.org/mathmedia/archive/12-1999media.html

http://kelemengabi.picturepush.com/tag/trilobit%20chladni%20standing%20wave
%20kelemengabi

Intersting websites
http://ray.tomes.biz/cymatics.htm
www.healingsounds.com/research/cymatics.asp:
http://www.newalexandria.org/thinkdirt/crescentbell/teamViz-cymatics.html
Myxococcus Xanthus images

Spatial organization, dynamics and metabolism in bacterial communities

www.owlnet.rice.edu/~oi1/research.html
In recent years the ubiquity of microbial
communities in nature has become apparent,
for instance most bacteria related to human
diseases are associated with biofilms.

Myxococcus xanthus is not a pathogen however complex patterns

formed by these bacteria are often viewed as a model system of
multicellular bacterial development. In collaboration with experimental
lab of Roy Welch (Syracuse) we are interested in modeling spatial
organisation and dynamics of the patterns formed by M. xanthus
during vegetative and starvation conditions.

Predatory bacteria hunting techniques

http://www.scientistlive.com/European-ScienceNews/Biotechnology/Predatory_bacteria_hunting_techniques/21214/

My point of view is that chemotaxis is only part of the explanation and that wave
patterns are also influenced and produced by Electromagnetic fields generated by
the chemical reactions taking place. When you change the chemical reactions you
will change the EMFs, BUT THE CONVERSE IS ALSO TRUE. Using terminology
from Biophysics the term wavelength also refers to EMf's. The dynamic nature of
shifting/switching electromagnetic field frequencies + amplitude will also account
for pattern formation shifts and may be part of the explanation for the dynamics
swarm behavior. Steve Haltiwanger
Like something from a horror movie, the swarm of bacteria ripples purposefully
toward their prey, devours it and moves on.
Researchers at the University of Iowa are studying this behaviour in Myxococcus xanthus
(M. xanthus), a bacterium commonly found in soil, which preys on other bacteria.
Despite its deadly role in the bacterial world, M. xanthus is harmless to humans and
might one day be used beneficially to destroy harmful bacteria on surfaces or in human
infections, said John Kirby, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology in the UI Roy J.
and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
M. xanthus lives in a multi-cellular unit that can change its structure and behaviour in
response to changing availability of prey. This adaptive ability to control movement in
response to an environmental stimulus is called chemotaxis, and the research team
coined the term predataxis to describe M. xanthus behaviour in response to prey.
In earlier studies, Kirby and James Berleman, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Kirby's lab,
showed that the presence of prey causes M. xanthus to form parallel rippling waves that
move toward and through prey bacteria. Now, how the bacteria organise to form these
travelling waves in response to the presence of prey is the subject of the UI team's latest
study, which was published online Oct. 24 in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition.

"When an M. xanthus aggregate is placed inside a colony of E. coli bacteria, the M.

xanthus proceeds to eat the colony from the inside out and creates a rippling pattern as
the swarm moves through the prey cells," Kirby said. "We now know that this rippling
pattern is the highly organised behavior of thousands of cells working in concert to
digest the prey."
Unlike the random motion M. xanthus exhibits at low levels of prey, the study shows that
during predation, individual M. xanthus cells line up perpendicular to the axis of the
ripple and move back and forth. This motion of individual cells, known as cell reversal
produces an alternating pattern of high and low cell density like crests and troughs of
waves, and the overall motion of the wave formation is directed toward prey. The UI
team also showed that the ripple wavelength is adaptable and dependent of how much
prey is available. At high prey density, M. xanthus forms ripples with shorter
wavelengths. As prey density decreases, the ripple wavelength gets longer. Eventually,
when there is no more prey, the rippling behaviour dissipates."The rippling appears to
enhance predation by keeping more M. xanthus cells in the location of the prey cells,"
Kirby said.
http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2008/october/102908bacterial-swarm.html

Cover C-signaling and cell movement in Myxococcus. (Background) Rippling waves in

submerged culture of wild-type cells. (Inset) Movement of single cells within rippling
waves detected by fluorescence labeling. (Left) Differences in fluorescence intensity of
individual cells; (right) paths of representative strongly fluorescent single cells tracked
through time. (For details, see Sager and Kaiser, p. 2793.) http://intlgenesdev.cshlp.org/content/8/23.cover-expansion
Since bacteria have liquid crystal properties they will behave like electric dipoles
and align in an electric field. Steve Haltiwanger

Elastic and Ferroelectric Properties of

Liquid Crystals: Modeling and Analysis
Maria-Carme T. Calderer http://appliedmath.arizona.edu/events/amc/spring2009/jan30
School of Mathematics
University of Minnesota
Since the development and commercialization of the first nematic liquid crystal display
devices in the middle of the last century, mathematical modeling and analysis of liquid

crystals has experienced significant progress. Liquid crystals are phases intermediate
between solid and liquid; they occur in synthetic as well as in organic compounds. The
Kevlar fiber is an example of a highly employed liquid crystal polymer; many virus and
bacteria colonies as well as biological tissues present liquid crystal ordering. Liquid
crystals of small molecular weight consist of rigid, rod-like molecules that tend to follow
preferential directions of alignment. Their interaction with electric and magnetic fields is
at the core of application to display devices.
Living cells use and generate electric, magnetic and electromagnetic (both coherent
and incoherent biophoton) waves and also acoustic waves as conformational changes in
macromolecules called conformons (analogy to lattice vibration of phonons in solid
crystals) [12-17]. Electricity is a basic feature of cells, because all biomolecules are ions
or biomolecules are endowed with high electric dipole moment. Besides, when their
charges move an electromagnetic field is generated. Magnetic features can emergence
from free radicals, organic molecules with metals or biomagnetites [18]. Besides,
according to ESR (electron-spin resonance) experiments all living cells or organisms
have paramagnetic features in native state [19]. Conformons are originated from
continuously moving of molecules.
Different parts (DNA, RNA, protein) of the cells show piezoelectric and
semiconductor features [20-23]. The piezoelectric effect refers to that property of matter,
which can convert electromagnetic oscillations to mechanical vibrations and vice versa or
electric oscillations to mechanical vibration and vice versa. Cells piezoelectric features
can produce circular polarized light pulse, which is the base that living molecules are not
raceme mixtures of optically active molecules. Organic semiconductors have crystal-like
structure and electrical conductivity as diode. The electric fields of the wave can couple
to the mobile carriers within a semiconductor structure and modify its electronic and
elastic properties. Optical signals (biophoton) can be stored by the surface acoustic waves
(conformon as mechanical vibrations in macromolecules similar to phonon in the solid
crystals) in the semiconductor, in a photon-atom-bound way [24], and can be reassembled into light after very long delay times and at a remote location of the sample."
from: Spin modulated information storage in biomagnetites Istvn Bkkon
5mp.eu/fajlok/bokkon-brainimagery/spin_memory_in_biocrystals_www.5mp.eu_.doc

Initial Stage of DNA-Electrotransfer into E. coli Cells1

Hisashi Kimoto and Akira Taketo2 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9276694
Department of Biochemistry I, Fukui Medical School Matsuoka, Fukui 910-11
The mechanism of electrotransfer of DNA into Escherichia coli cells was investigated
under conditions optimal for genetic transformation or transfection. Simple mixing in

10% polyethylene glycol 6000 did not cause binding of DNA to the recipient bacteria.
When subjected to a high electric field, however, 9098% of the input plasmid or phage
DNAs were complexed with the cells. By application of the electric field, a significant
amount of biotin-labeled DNA was bound onto the recipient surface, as detected by
fluorescein isothiocyanate-coupled avidin. When subjected to a high voltage pulse, DNA
molecules were rapidly attracted toward the anode. Concurrently, the electric field
induced the orientation of bacterial cells, along the field lines and their movement
toward the anode. Since the bacterial movement was relatively slow, a substantial
fraction of DNA molecules must strike the cathode-facing end or side of the recipient
cells. Irrespective of the high efficiency of DNA transformation, the voltage pulse did not
induce release of alkaline phosphate and -galactosidase. The electrotransferred DNA first
remained sensitive to Tris-EDTA treatment, and became refractory to spheroplasting only
after incubation at 37C. These results indicate that the infecting DNA is
electrophoretically plugged to the outer membrane loosened by the voltage pulse.
I believe that conformational changes take place when liquid crystal biomolecules
are exposed to specific frequencies of electromagnetic fields. This is a process
called electroconformational coupling. These conformational changes will result is
changes in the chemical processes that are taking place and can account for changes
in phase behavior is swarming. It is my contention that use of plasma tubes
controlled by frequency generators can be used to increase the production of certain
metabolites for commercial use from bacterial cultures. Steve Haltiwanger
Recently, Tjandra et al.5 found an application of dilute liquid crystal phases that reveals
important structure parameters of dissolved molecules, employing NMR spectroscopy.6
The use of these phases has escalated rapidly, creating a need for robust methods to
interpret the new experimental parameters. Frequently the molecular functionality is
related to changes in the molecular structure,7,8 and these conformational changes affect
the experimental parameters.9 A reasonable interpretation of the experiments must
therefore take all possible structures into consideration. The problem posed by including
all such structures is the enormous number of possible combinations that arises.10,11 This
thesis introduces a novel and superior method of determining the most frequent molecular
structures. In order to verify the applicability of the new method, rigorous tests and
descriptions of the liquid crystal systems are presented in the included papers and
discussed in the thesis.
The molecular structure is also important in materials science, being responsible for all
chemical processes12 including phase behavior,13,14 e.g. in liquid crystal displays, which
are formed by rod-like molecules. Since molecules can usually adopt several different
conformations, the focus of this thesis is the development of tools for determining which
conformations are significantly populated. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
spectroscopy is an established tool for studies of condensed phases.15,16 In particular, the
residual through-space magnetic dipoledipole couplings have been proven to be of great
importance for structure determination of molecules in partially ordered systems.17,18
http://www.fos.su.se/~baltzar/thesis.pdf

Technical Physics, Vol. 48, No. 12, 2003, pp. 15751578. Translated from
Zhurnal Tekhnichesko Fiziki, Vol. 73, No. 12, 2003, pp. 7680.
Original Russian Text Copyright 2003 by Rapis.

Twist of Growing Bacterial Colonies

E. G. Rapis
Laboratory of Applied Physics, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978 Israel
Received May 20, 2003
AbstractTwist observed in growing bacterial colonies at the macrolevel is explained in
terms of the selfassembly (self-organization) of film-forming protein clusters, since the in
vitro and in vivo behavior and symmetry properties of protein in an open
thermodynamically nonequilibrium system are identical. The self-assembly of elastic
protein films in the course of condensation in the proteinwater system obeys the laws of
the elasticity theory. As the viscosity of the system grows, the transition of the protein
from the liquid-crystal to the solid phase occurs. This transition has a nonlinear dynamics,
which also shows up at the macrolevel. Opposite vorticities (twist) appear in the system.
Such a modification of protein has been named protos. It is hypothesized that the
formation of an elastic nonequilibrium protos film is consistent with the behavior and
orientation of elastic forces and magnetic fields in the presence of unlike electric charges.
2003 MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica.
JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY,
0021-9193/98/$04.0010
July 1998, p. 32853294 Vol. 180, No. 13
Copyright 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
A Complex Pattern of Traveling Stripes Is Produced by
Swimming Cells of Bacillus subtilis
NEIL H. MENDELSON1* AND JOCELINE LEGA2
Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology1 and Mathema
Populations of swimming, swarming, or gliding bacteria are capable of spontaneous selforganization into states that exhibit cooperative behavior. In systems such as the
multicellular forms of myxobacteria and the complex colonial patterns produced by
motile strains of Escherichia coli and Salmonella, cellular aggregation arises in response
to signaling by certain cells that excrete attractants (2, 6, 21).
It is my hypothesis that the exposure of bacterial colonies to electromagnetic fields in the
form of biophotons cause the optoelectronic structures (liquid crystals at both molecular
scale and organism scale) to produce interference patterns and that biophotons play a
regulatory role in cellular physiological processes. These interference patterns also act a
macroscopic scale to organize cell to cell communication which influences the
movement and activity of the organisms themselves into self-organizing patterns and
swarming behavior (Galle et al., 1991; Unknown, 2000).

Galle, M., Neurohr, R., Altmann, G., Popp, F. A., & Nagl, W. (1991). Biophoton emission
fromDaphnia magna: A possible factor in the self-regulation of swarming. Experientia,
47, 457460.
Author unknown. INTERACTION BETWEEN EMFs & LIVING SYSTEM
Vol. 43 No. 5 SCIENCE IN CHINA (Series C) October 2000