Slashdot Mirror
Are Human Beings Organisms Or Living Ecosystems?
Hugh Pickens writes "Every human body harbors about 100 trillion bacterial cells, outnumbering human cells 10 to one. There's been a growing consensus among scientists that bacteria are not simply random squatters, but organized communities that evolve with us and are passed down from generation to generation. 'Human beings are not really individuals; they're communities of organisms,' says microbiologist Margaret McFall-Ngai. 'This could be the basis of a whole new way of looking at disease.' Recently, for example, evidence has surfaced that obesity may well include a microbial component. Jeffrey Gordon's lab at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published findings that lean and obese twins — whether identical or fraternal — harbor strikingly different bacterial communities that are not just helping to process food directly; they actually influence whether that energy is ultimately stored as fat in the body. Last year, the National Institutes of Health launched the Human Microbiome Project to characterize the role of microbes in the human body, a formal recognition of bacteria's far-reaching influence, including their contributions to human health and certain illnesses. William Karasov, a physiologist and ecologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, believes that the consequences of this new approach will be profound. 'We've all been trained to think of ourselves as human,' says Karasov, adding that bacteria have usually been considered only as the source of infections, or as something benign living in the body. Now, Karasov says, it appears 'we are so interconnected with our microbes that anything studied before could have a microbial component that we hadn't thought about.'"
KNEES AND TOES!!!
We are obviously our own eco-system.....we have a song and everything
"This is the value of a summer spent and a winter earned"
as a human overlord to welcome our bacteria inhabitants
God's gift to chicks
Perhaps these are the midicloriens we have been looking for. Try to speak to them with your mind and see if you can make things move... (it only works for me in the bathroom when my concentration is at its highest and the accoustics are at their best)
Also, this brings another question to mind as well. Have our snooty English teachers been correct in using "we" in weird places? "How are we feeling today? Did we do our homework?" The ramifications are... spooky.
Finally, let's tell ALL the germaphobes out there! This hand-washing nut-cases are annoying! We can either break them of their phobias or finally kill them. Either way, their irrational fears will bug me no further. ("Clean" has it's place, but primarily when it has to do with food and equipment!)
This must be why I hear those voices in my head.
"Eat that donut"
"Don't eat it!"
"Eat it!"
"I am bored"
"Natalie Portman"
I am joking.. or am I?
did you see that this is all based around an obesity study? this has to be the BEST reason-why-i'm-fat yet!
"it's not me, it's the entire living eco-system of which i am comprised. and my DNA. and it's glandular. and i'm big boned."
i think most of the people in the study were made of cake.
As in the old jokes, where two planets meet:
- How's going?
- Bad... I got Mankind.
- Had it also. Not a big problem though, it goes away.
Let A denote "is fat" and B denote "eats cheeseburgers all day".
You are a counterexample to B=>A and your first invalid argument is to use that to conclude A=>B.
Your second fallacy, now epistemological, is to turn B from a general insult meaning "stuffs self with crap food all day" to the literal meaning "swallows minced beef and cheese slices all day". Lots of vegetarians stuff themselves with crap food all day. There is no reason to think that not eating meat means you're eating more healthily. I say this as a vegan of ideal weight who recognises how hard it is to eat healthily vs the man who eats an unrestricted, balanced diet.
As a series of tubes.
Task Mangler
Consider a spherical human...
Or are we dancer?
"2. alkalinity (such as drinking lemon juice in water)"
pH fail. (or "pHail" as the cool kids are saying these days)
2. alkalinity (such as drinking lemon juice in water)
I see sleeping through fourth-grade science's done wonders for you...
Just the excuse that I have been looking for to avoid having to hoover the carpets!
Is that what women are calling taking a bath nowdays?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Ah, an investment banker. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I know a guy who just stop eating. After a year, he doesn't weight anything, and he doesn't have to move anymore! Quite impressive.
Of Code And Men
After reading through this I can no longer tolerate a sanctioned policy of genocide against an indiginous life form. Thus all bacteria and viruses must be protected like any other form of life. In our own personal ecosystem the use of weapons of mass destruction against said bacteria and viruses must stop! Save the bacteria, whales, dolphins, etc.) As delicate as the ecosystem is we must prevent mass extinction and stop polluting the ecosystem with toxic medication and antibiotics!
Oh man the Earth worshippers are gonna run with this one... Gaia has a disease...
How long till the last shread of reason is lost? Humans are machines, nothing more made up of lots of parts. You are just as worthless as a laser printer because you are no different. There is no free will, just complex biochemical reactions guided by DNA and environment. No love, just an interaction of mating protocols, chemistry, and complex algorithms running in your advanced CPU. YOu illusion of conciousness is noting more then a product of random sequences of programs surviving the evolutionary tread mill.
Scifi got it wrong, the machines do take over, we mearly give up and turn into machines... No wonder the more "advanced" we get, the cheaper life becomes and the more we treat one another like machines...
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Doctor: Mr. Burns, I'm afraid you are the sickest man in the United States. You have everything.
Burns: You mean I have pneumonia?
Doctor: Yes.
Burns: Juvenile diabetes?
Doctor: Yes.
Burns: Hysterical pregnancy?
Doctor: Uh, a little bit, yes. You also have several diseases that have just been discovered -- in you.
Burns: I see. You sure you haven't just made thousands of mistakes?
Doctor: Uh, no, no, I'm afraid not.
Burns: This sounds like bad news.
Doctor: Well, you'd think so, but all of your diseases are in perfect balance. Uh, if you have a moment, I can explain.
Burns: Well ...
Doctor: Here's the door to your body, see? And these are oversized novelty germs. That's influenza, that's bronchitis, and this cute little cuddle-bug is pancreatic cancer. Here's what happens when they all try to get through the door at once. We call it, "Three Stooges Syndrome."
Burns: So what you're saying is, I'm indestructible!
Doctor: Oh, no, no, in fact, even slight breeze could --
Burns: Indestructible.
Make out with skinny chicks.
So where is the pricey SoHo boutique I can go to to be cleaned out and re-populated with an exclusive culture grown by Natalie Portman?
I know the economy is bad, but the bio venture capitalists are really slipping if this isn't an option by now.
But it's healthier energy! ;-)
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.