Two new blogs have been catalogued, classified, and posted to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, my ongoing project tracking alternative dispute resolution weblogs around the globe.

These new additions, one from the East Coast, one from the West Coast, here in the U.S., are:

• New York Center for Interpersonal Development’s Blog Spot. This blog is published by the New York Center for interpersonal Development, which provides training and services for conflict management, youth and community development, effective communication and intercultural awareness. Its motto? “Strengthening Communities, Improving Relationships”. This blog actively solicits reader participation–see for example “Does the Internet Encourage Dialogue?” and “The Riddler“, two posts that caught my attention.
• San Francisco Mediation. Written by San Francisco, California, mediator and attorney Paula M. Lawhon, this mediation blog offers visitors information and discussion on mediation as an alternative dispute resolution process, including the benefits of mediation, advice for those thinking of mediating a case, and the expanding role of mediation in civil and family law matters.

A warm welcome to both these blogs.

(As always, if you wish to add your blog or someone else’s to the World Directory of ADR Blogs, please let me know. It’s a commercial-free site, and there is no cost to be listed. The Directory has information on submitting your blog and submission guidelines. I’m especially interested in hearing about blogs outside the U.S. On my wish list? An ADR blog from Australia—there must be one out there somewhere, given mediation’s high level of visibility in that corner of the globe.)

Technorati tags: alternative dispute resolution, blogging, mediation, mediation blogs, conflict resolution

Regular readers may remember “What’s bugging us: Cockroaches rival humans in ability to make decisions as groups“, a post that signaled my return to blogging following a brief break.

I now return to blogging at the end of a similar break. Therefore, it seemed somehow fitting to do so with a post that explores a related theme. This one concerns not cockroaches, but an even lowlier lifeform: germs.

Not only do cockroaches work well in groups, but so, too, do bacteria, according to “A Biologist’s Listening Guide to Bacteria“, a recent story on National Public Radio, which featured an interview with Bonnie Bassler, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, who has made some intriguing discoveries regarding marine bacteria.

Bassler’s work demonstrated the capacity of these tiny organisms to actually communicate with each other. In studies done on glow-in-the-dark bacteria, Bassler and her assistants learned that

It turns out that when one of these bacteria is all alone, it doesn’t glow. After all, that would be a waste of effort because nothing could ever see such a tiny amount of light. But it does send out chemical signals that say, hey I’m here … and it listens back for other bacteria sending the same signal.

When enough bacteria are doing this, they know they have a quorum. All of a sudden, they light up and do all sorts of other things to act in concert, like a super-organism.

“So they turn on and off 100 different genes, to let them turn off behaviors that are good when you’re alone and turn on genes that are good when you are a community. And for reasons we don’t understand, the gene that lets them make this beautiful blue light is one of the genes they turn on,” Bassler says.

Okay, folks, if cockroaches and bacteria can communicate and work together, what’s up with us humans? Hmmm?