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Study: People Emit a "Germ Cloud" of Bacteria As Unique As a Fingerprint

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-got-your-smell dept.

An anonymous reader writes: According to a new study, we are all surrounded by a personal "germ cloud" as unique as a fingerprint. Lead author of the study Dr James Meadow says: "We expected that we would be able to detect the human microbiome in the air around a person, but we were surprised to find that we could identify most of the occupants just by sampling their microbial cloud. Our results confirm that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one, and demonstrate for the first time that individuals release their own personalized microbial cloud." The findings were published today in the journal PeerJ.

42 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Stop the presses! by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure any dog could have told you that.

    1. Re:Stop the presses! by Crowd+Computing · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure any dog could have told you that.

      Germs don't necessarily stink.

    2. Re:Stop the presses! by Virtucon · · Score: 2

      They do after I've had pizza and beer. It's a scientific fact.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    3. Re:Stop the presses! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure any dog could have told you that.

      Germs don't necessarily stink.

      At least to the level detectable by humans.

      OTOH, dogs have been shown to be able to successfully indicate which a set of samples comes from a human that has cancer. Including, falsely first thought, but then proven correct, indicating a sample from a person from the control group.

      I'd suspect them quite capable of differentiating the blends of excreta from different sets of bacteria.

    4. Re:Stop the presses! by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      I've wondered about that. I'm curious if the dogs are detecting an odor based on decay or something else?

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    5. Re:Stop the presses! by Flavianoep · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but dogs can't speak English.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    6. Re:Stop the presses! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you're trying to say that living bacteria don't cause chemical odours (not sure about those non chemical odours though?), I know a good biology textbook.

    7. Re:Stop the presses! by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      I asked my dog and all he had to say about it was "woof". Which I interpreted as "I'm hungry" according to past conversations.
      Not very conclusive.

    8. Re:Stop the presses! by jitterman · · Score: 1

      I guess "stink" is the term I might not define the same way that you do. Humans certainly can't detect all the smells that many other animals can, so what makes no smell to us might have a unique "odorprint" to our pets.

      --
      For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
    9. Re:Stop the presses! by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --Your dog wants steak. ;-)

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
  2. Pig-Pen by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Funny

    So we're all just like Pig-Pen from the Peanuts cartoon strips.

    1. Re:Pig-Pen by GungaDan · · Score: 1

      Only when I dance, I swear.

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    2. Re:Pig-Pen by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      And we can use it as a form of ID.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    3. Re:Pig-Pen by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      And we can use it as a form of ID.

      Let me know how that works for you, with the TSA.

  3. Auras really exist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So, after all this time science discovers that auras actually exist.

  4. Follow up will be interesting. by Chikungunya · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this "fingerprint" bacterial cloud change with time? after antibiotic use? what about members of a family or people that recently began living together? It does not feel like this will have a practical use in the near future, but opens some interesting lines of study.

    1. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by dadelbunts · · Score: 1

      Probably. But im thinking of a future with discreet germ cloud sensors used to track peoples movements.

    2. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Does this "fingerprint" bacterial cloud change with time?

      This method of identification can be defeated by eating a taco.

    3. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes I believe there has been documentation about the microbiome changing when you live with someone, but not totally. IIRC you end up with traces of each-others microbiome in each..

      Follow up research should be pretty neat.

    4. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by 31415926535897 · · Score: 1

      Yes. This TED Talk is very illuminating: https://www.ted.com/talks/rob_...

    5. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      I'd be interested too to see the impact of severe illness; some of the diarrheal illnesses can clear the gut of bacteria, I suspect some high-fever sicknesses could materially influence this cloud as well.

      --
      -Styopa
    6. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by mick129 · · Score: 1

      Yes it does, also which pets we have and which area we live in.

      Here's a two minute clip discussing it:
      http://www.scientificamerican....

      --
      Move along, no sig to see here.
    7. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      Taking antibiotics can kill off your gut bacteria too
      I assume that's the reason why some antibiotic side effects include "the green apple splatters"

    8. Re:Follow up will be interesting. by Another+Mouse+Coward · · Score: 1

      Probably. But im thinking of a future with discreet germ cloud sensors used to track peoples movements.

      My movements are more directly measured by the smell, I assure you! ;)

  5. Re:Stop the presses and the TV scripts by Thorfinn.au · · Score: 2

    this will be in the CSI:XXX scripts next season

  6. Ha, so it turns out by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Funny

    6 year olds are right after all, there IS such a thing as cooties.

    --
    Summation 2
  7. Why only "most"? Study seems to be spiked. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    The study seems to have spiked the results by offering breakfast burritos to the participants as they wait for their turn to be sampled. Further the few people who could not be detected using this method were the ones who did not partake in the free burritos. So basically this study just confirms common knowledge about people releasing bacterial clouds.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  8. So I am a walking cootie factory? by Aku+Head · · Score: 1

    What wonderful news!

  9. Re:pretty soon, some people are going to be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Funding

    This work was funded by a grant to the Biology and the Built Environment Center from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Microbiology for the Built Environment Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."

  10. Pig-Pen by iONiUM · · Score: 1

    I guess we're all Pig-Pen then?

  11. The real iCloud by rvw · · Score: 3, Funny

    Something tells me that this is the real iCloud. Now we need an app to connect to it!

    1. Re:The real iCloud by bkr1_2k · · Score: 1

      No, some genius will trademark the concept as "myCloud" or something like that and we'll all be paying royalties.

      --
      "Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
    2. Re:The real iCloud by mu51c10rd · · Score: 1

      I don't think I want an app to connect to someone else's "personal cloud".

    3. Re: The real iCloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't need an app. Nature has granted me an extendable poker.

  12. Two words... by mschaffer · · Score: 1

    PROVE IT

  13. Unique? by McGregorMortis · · Score: 1

    By "as unique as fingerprints", I assume then mean "not very unique".

  14. I love how... by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 2

    things I hear on NPR while on my commute home always show up on /. the next morning!

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  15. I wonder by koan · · Score: 1

    Would a husband and wife with as active sex life (for proximity) have roughly identical "germ clouds".

    I came across some information on gut bacteria showing that couples quite often share the same gut bacteria (to a degree) after being together for a while.

    Of course that depends on factors like how often they kiss etc.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  16. Re:A Hitchcock by RicktheBrick · · Score: 1

    I would think that there are plenty of ways a clerk at a bank could set off an alarm that would notify the police and take air samples around a thief. One could put a piece of cardboard under the hundred dollar bills. If under duress one could just remove the cardboard with the bills. Or maybe the bank would take air samples from everyone just in case of a problem. There are probably ways of defeating this. If one were to wear a air and water tight garment and take a shower in it soon before attempting the robbery but this would significantly increase preparations for the robbery.

  17. Great... by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    Now I just feel like a vessel for a bunch of germs. My body is nothing more than a bacteria bus. It serves no purpose other than to move bacteria from point A to point B. My wants and desires are simply the wants and desires of bacteria.

    Usain Bolt is nothing more than a bacteria Ferarri.

  18. Re:A Hitchcock by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    So all you need to do to frame someone, is sneeze on them?

  19. Pull my finger by RuffMasterD · · Score: 1

    Pull my finger... go on, pull it... it activates my unique ID... one person at a ti... aw, my arm... I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding... can I talk to your supervisor... aw, that hurts... sir, can you remove your knee from my... no, I don't want handcuffs, just pull my finger...

    --
    Human Rights, Article 12: Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence