Getting bacteria and yeast to talk to each other, thanks to a 'nanotranslator'

Cells communicate with one another in the language of chemistry, but those from different kingdoms, such as bacteria and yeast, speak dialects virtually unintelligible to the other. By learning how microbes 'talk,' researchers hope to one day manipulate their behavior to protect against disease, for example. Efforts like this are in their infancy, but researchers now describe the first system that enables two unrelated organisms to communicate.