Can bacteria communicate with each other, and if they do communicate, how and why do they do so? And how might understanding the mechanisms of bacterial communication be used to inform development of anti-bacterial drugs? In this album scientists involved in pioneering work into bacterial 'quorum sensing'' at Nottingham University in the UK reveal some of the techniques they use and give insight into what they hope to achieve. This material forms part of The Open University course S204 Biology: uniformity and diversity.