Mysterious Microbe Offers Clues to How Cancer Works  A tiny
aquatic microbe that has been swimming around the planet for
more than a billion years has stunned scientists who have
discovered that it has a sophisticated communications network
that is more elaborate than that found in higher life forms,
including humans. What makes the finding particularly surprising
is the microbe has only one cell, so it's sort of like living in
a community with only one telephone. Who are you going to talk
to?  The microbe, known as Monosiga brevicollis, has fascinated
scientists for more than a century because it could be the
bridge between fungus and multi-celled animals, and thus, the
pathway the first organisms followed into the animal kingdom. We
share some of the same genes, tyrosine kinases, except the
microbe has a lot more of them, 128 to just 90 found in humans.
That particular gene allows the cells in a human body to talk to
each other, and respond to external stimuli, talents that would
seem to be of little use t