single celled organisms

(University of California - Santa Barbara) Thousands of feet below the bottom of the sea, off the shores of Santa Barbara, single-celled organisms are busy feasting on oil.

New research shows that while engineered nanomaterials can be transferred up the lowest levels of the food chain from single celled organisms to higher multicelled ones, the amount transferred was relatively low and there was no evidence of the nanomaterials concentrating in the higher level organisms.

(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) New research shows that while engineered nanomaterials can be transferred up the lowest levels of the food chain from single celled organisms to higher multicelled ones, the amount transferred was relatively low and there was no evidence of the nanomaterials concentrating in the higher level organisms.

It has been widely assumed that, in single-celled organisms, each cell perceives its environment -- and responds to stress conditions -- individually.

Likewise, it had been thought that cells in multicellular organisms respond the same way, but scientists have now discovered otherwise.

In studies of the worm C.