Slashdot Mirror
Microbes That Keep Us Healthy Starting To Die Off
Dr_Ken writes with a quote from Scientific American:
"The human body has some 10 trillion human cells—but 10 times that number of microbial cells. So what happens when such an important part of our bodies goes missing? With rapid changes in sanitation, medicine and lifestyle in the past century, some of these indigenous species are facing decline, displacement and possibly even extinction. In many of the world's larger ecosystems, scientists can predict what might happen when one of the central species is lost, but in the human microbial environment—which is still largely uncharacterized—most of these rapid changes are not yet understood. 'This is the next frontier and has real significance for human health, public health and medicine,' says Betsy Foxman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor. Meanwhile, each new generation in developed countries comes into the world with fewer of these native populations. 'They're actually missing some component of their microbiota that they've evolved to have,' Foxman says."
am saddened by the death of our microbial overlords (or underlords as the case may be).
Lol you just equated Macs and Linux to harmful microbes, id hunker down and wait for the down modding from mac and linux mods, but you may just recieve positive mod points from the windows fanboys. On a side note, can you kill windows with antibiotics?
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Consuming a few "sliders" will re-populate lots of gastro-intestinal things.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
We swam in the Hudson..." (video)
R.I.P. funnyman.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
we now live in a world with Sissies who can't take life's discomforts like there parents.
Apparently, they also cannot spell like their parents did, either.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
more fun than eating dirt: mud wrestling with members of the opposite sex (or same sex, if that's the way you roll)
...now has scientific backing. Go ahead, pick up that chip that fell on the floor and eat it. When someone gives you a look, just tell them you are maintaining a healthy microbial diversity.
I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
if by expire you mean explode, then you've just come up with the coolest idea ever.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I ran the numbers on the growth rate of a puppy. In 100 years it will be too large for the solar system and will destroy it.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.