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Sewage Bacteria Reveal Cities' Obesity Rates
benonemusic writes A new frontier in data mining: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts surveyed bacteria from human waste in the municipal sewage systems. Surprisingly they found different proportions of bacterial species in cities that correlated with obesity rates in those municipal areas. The researchers believe that these bacterial samples can yield city-level information on other diseases as well. Hopefully this isn't just a messy case of spurious correlation.
Yes, but if you want to know how obese a city is you now have a new choice. A) Analyze at remains from the sewer B) Analyze photos from Facebook or C) Spend 5 minutes at the local Walmart.
... complete crap.
Sorry, had to say it.
At least that data is pretty much anonymized.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
scientists will get the the bottom of this.
No shit?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
There are studies that have shown that it is extremely difficult to change you gut flora by simply ingesting a probiotic pill. What little life makes its way through the hostile environment of the stomach finds a world with very few free niches to colonize and no preferred food sources to live on. The more effect way is to just eat the kinds of foods the life you want to live in your gut thrive on. All life comes covered with the microbes necessary to digest itself and return it to the soil. You are what eats what you eat. If you want to get healthy microbes in your diet, eat non pasteurized fermented foods like sauerkraut.