Bacteria strut their stuff

Videos catch microbes walking on hairlike appendages

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Jokes that open with a bacterium walking into a bar just got a little less far-fetched.

Some bacteria can just stand up and toddle away on hairlike legs, a new study shows. The finding, reported October 8 in Science, could help scientists better understand how bacteria form dense antibiotic-resistant communities called biofilms and may lead to better ways to combat troublesome and sometimes deadly microbes.