[colanderman]

Bacteria with a synthetic gene. This is not a newly-discovered property of naturally-occurring bacteria, as the title would lead you to believe.

[dmichulke]

Is there a systemic reason for why they can't or do you mean that only "none of the known bacteria don't" (build sensors)?

[colanderman]

I mean, the article is about a gene that caused the bacteria to build sensors, not anything else. I don't know what bacteria can or can't do. (E.g. Ants are known to self-assemble into useful structures such as bridges. So that being true of bacteria is believable, hence my confusion.)

[dang]

Ok, we replaced the title with the subtitle.