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Your Feces Is a Wonderland of Viruses
sciencehabit writes "Thanks to an anlaysis of fecal samples from four sets of Missouri-born female identical twins and their mothers, researchers have concluded that human guts harbor viruses as unique as the people they inhabit; the viral lineup differs even between identical twins. Even more surprising? These viruses may be doing good work inside of us."
Don't I feel special!
... I love that song.
rooooar
Is Weird Al back in town?
From my understanding of evolution, I think it would be more surprising if something we all have inside of us was doing something bad.
My other sig is clever.
My viruses don't stink....
Hope is the currency of fools
One of the greatest episodes of any show ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvk-CnXYhI
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Why did I think the post was related to FaceBook?
Dennis Onstenk
Uhm, this is rather well known and well established. You have good AND 'bad' ones inside of you at any given time. Some are useful, even required as the body depends on them to get the job done, ESPECIALLY in the gut. Some can make you sick, some can even kill you.
The 'germs' you have in you are heavily influenced by your environment as that is often the source of their replenishment. They mostly come from your environment so of course they are wildly different between people. Genetic twins are the same genetically, once you leave that the environment makes them unique and different as soon as the egg splits. Theres no such thing as 'identical twins' in the general, only the genetic.
Doctors have been prescribing 'pro-botics' to make up for using anti-botics to kill bacteria for years so people can take heavy anti-biotics and still have a mostly functional balanced gut and vagina. Yes those are for bacteria, not viruses but its not because they haven't known about viruses.
Of course, I wrote all this before I bothered to notice Timothy pushed the story to the front page. Just stop man, seriously, just freaking stop.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I wonder if any of those viruses is a key "log"-ger. Better that than a worm, I guess.
I'll show myself out...
It was already established, IIRC, how the number of bacterial cells in our bodies is greater than "human" ones; now this. "Human" genetic material (what this is all about in the end) seems to be in a minority inside us - though with such viruses it might be much less clear, perhaps they are a much more integral part of us; could pass RNA between cells, for example.
So...I, for one, welcome our viral overlords. I welcome us.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Geez, the Slashdot editors couldn't even spell "anal" when it was even on-topic.
Imagine this being said in a Hugh Bliss voice.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
This thing about bacteria using viruses to transport and exchange genetic material makes me wonder if sexual reproduction could have evolved from here. Are there any theories about this...
???
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
Humans are born with all these bacteria built into the body and advances as we grew up; on the other hand young elephant have to eat their parents feces in order to gain these valuable bacteria to help them have an immune system and digest food.
So aren't you glad you're not an elephant.
Now my illusion is shattered. *sniff*
The article mentions the identical twins but it does not indicate if they are adult, identical twins living in different places, with different environmental conditions. If you took two 25 year old identical twins and raised one in Florida and the other in Seattle for five years you would definitely find different flora in the gut.
Now if these identical twins were still children, raised in the same environment, then that would indeed be interesting.
Tisha Hayes
I mean seriously, I'm blushing after hearing this good (and, I should note, widely-publicized) review of my feces.
Just a couple days ago I read about people getting FECAL TRANSPLANTS to cure intestinal problems, now this.
Looks like the solutions to many of life's problems lies in the asshole.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I think this will drastically change the dialog in future episodes of CSI.
"You can suck it CSI guy! You can't prove nothin'"
"Mr. Jones, there's no need to deny being at the crime scene. Your poop was all over the murder weapon"
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
fecal samples from four sets of Missouri-born female identical twins and their mothers
Impossible. It's common knowledge that girls don't pewp.
geeeeeeeeeeeesssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh!
No SHIT sherlock...
What fun the children of these scientists must have.
What does your daddy do? He plays with shit.
What did you do on your "take your son to work" day? We got people to poop for us.
What did you bring for show and tell? Here's some poop in the shape of Obama.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Man, talk about a shit job! Also, why is it particularly relevant that the subjects were born in Missouri? Just to make Mississippi jealous?
My feces am plural, you insensitive clod!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
By volume about 7% bacteria and 0.5% viruses.
I for one, welcome our microbial overlords. We are walking colonies of our single celled ancestors. Nothing new, but most people don't realize there are ten times more cells living in your gut than there are in the rest of your body (due to bacteria being much smaller than many cells in our bodies, in particular fat cells are enormous). A sobering reminder of who really rules the planet.
I can't think how much new research keeps popping up about the role gut flora plays in health and disease. But one has to wonder, what level of control our little friends really have over us?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
According to Nick Lane's mitochondria book there are 20 times more mitochondria than human cells in order bodies. And they supply 90% of our metabolic energy. Multicellular animals could not move without them. I instantly though of Star War's mediclodrians mediating The Force.
Why is this news?
This news arrives too late for two semi-famous uninformed girls ;).
Will they make me super intelligent?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Women shit?
then again
what are women?
You can't handle the truth.
Best Pickup Line... Ever!
No shit.
------
beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
I guess it was a bit poopy.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Thanks a lot, /.! :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Twice in my life, something besides antibiotics has killed my gut bacteria.
The first time it took me 8 weeks to realize. Basically felt terrible, real trouble digesting food, etc. etc.
Finally bought acidopholis pills from whole foods (yellow bottle, purple bottle: about $20).
One of the pills (2 billion germs) each and I was cured the next morning.
Next time took about 2 weeks to figure out- had the same result.
Antibiotics do this too and if no good stuff is present, bad stuff will move in.
Over time, you develop things to digest particular food (re article on japanese ability to digest seaweed).
It's also important to eat dirt and other things as a child but thats a different matter- it can prevent you from getting an inflamed stomach because we are wired to need a certain parasitic infection (some of us anyway) at least once in our lives.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I *KNEW* 2 girls 1 cup was more than a smut film gone bad. Instead it is a story about two girls sharing good viruses with each other. That is so touching.
Maybe one of these viruses will make us live forever. And grow huge teeth!
I am Babcock.
I thought it was a new social wedsite
I mean,really :)
This is the first time I have ever seen the words "wonderland" and "feces" used in the same sentence.
And your vomit is even worse.
Thank you captain obvious. :-)
Dr. Stephen Maturin was simply ahead of his time!
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Maturin )
I'll ponder this next time I'm bareback.
Pass the Kefir.
A blog I run for the wealth
Well, it's not inside all of us, guessing by the article. It differs between all of us, and besides, people generally think of viruses as bad things. Bacteria, yes, but I can't really think of very useful viruses.
Bacteriophages can transfer new traits to bacteria, across species (and even across domains) and is a very important means of horizontal gene transfer. Sure, this may not be "useful" to us, who so often have to combat these new traits such as the various antibiotic resistances that arise, but it is certainly useful to the bacteria. Even in the article, they suggested that the helpfulness of these gut viruses is to the bacteria rather than directly to the human.
For people who study microbiology and especially microbiological evolution (for the record, I am not; I'm just an interested bystander), the idea of symbiotic viruses is not surprising.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
sh1t?
-- Mean People Suck
In recognition of this, I've renamed the file to Shared_Wonderland.mpg
Maybe it's the beer but I initially read the headline as "Your Face Is a Wonderland of Viruses..."
I am just always wondering how it happen? I mean there is no one person in this world that have the same face with others. I think that is just awesome :)
I am just always wondering how it happen? I mean there is no one person in this world that have the same face with others. I think that is just awesome :)
Antibiotics kill bacteria... Pro-biotics (like in yougurt) contain bacteria... If we've found GOOD bacteria, surely there are other organisms within us that do us good too. Now, where is my pro-midichlorian pill?
I expected to be modded into oblivion, but not as... flamebait? What? I mean the joke was terrible, of bad taste, and I wonder why I even posted it. But flamebait? Yes, of course I see now, people will all grab pitchforks and start arguing about how ME did /not/ suck and flamewars will ensue.
Urgh.
It has been proposed as the main argument against intelligent design.
Would a truly intelligent designer route the main waste disposal channel right through the recreational area?
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
2 girls 1 cup.
Was this an alt.tasteless post originally?
Forget about iris, retinal or fingerprint scans. Please deposit stool sample on the scanning pad. Kind'a gross.
Think of the possibilities for criminology! An errant fart while committing a crime leaves microscopic poo particles floating about the crime scene. One micro-bacterial analysis later, compare to your database of samples, and you have your man! (And it would be a man. We all know ladies don't ever break wind, even when committing the most heinous of crimes.)
And it is not even my joke. I have seen it before. But perhaps "main argument against" was too strong. However, in humor that is known as hyperbole.
And I certainly agree with you. There are many better arguments against intelligent design than the one I jokingly put forward.
But your point is well taken. Evolution probably so universally associates the organs of sex and elimination because sex pheromones and territorial markers are often spread by the latter process (for efficiency's sake?). It therefore makes sense for the sex organ to be at ground zero for the chemical marker.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
I will now have better appreciation for scat fetishists...
Those people are doing good for one another ! :)
I have nothing to lose but my bindings.