Every Man Is an Island (of Bacteria)

Shipud writes "There are ten times more bacterial cells in our body than our own cells. Most of them are located in our guts, and they affect our well-being in many ways. A group at Washington University has recently reported that although our gut microbes perform similar functions, it appears that different people have completely different compositions of gut bacteria: every man is an island, a unique microbial ecosystem composed of completely different species. One conclusion is that the whole division of bacteria into species may well be over-used in biomedicine."

Hey.

[Anonymous Coward]

I already learned this from an episode of House last year.

With Deepest Apologies to John Donne

[reverseengineer]

No bacterium is an island, entire of itself; every bacterium is a piece of the intestine, a part of the main. If a Lactobacillus be washed away by the sea, the colon is the less, as well as if an Escherichia were, as well as if a colony of thy friend's or of thine own were: any bacterium's death diminishes me, because I am involved in the gut biota, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

So, I'm a self-propelled ecosystem...

[idontgno]

I'll have to remember that next time I get pulled over for driving "alone" in the high-occupancy vehicle lane.

Re:haha

[philspear]

I'm offended. Sex with ducks is NEVER redundant. What are you implying, mods?!?

Re:Crohn's Disease

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes: Frrrrrrp.

Re:yes, size does matter

[professionalfurryele]

And so the legend of torso boy continues... He may only be .4 of a boy, but he's 110% heroic, in this weeks episode... Sorry that made me chuckle.

You are probably right, although in the context of test scores I'm not convinced. My stats are right even if my knowledge of what people are thinking when they say stuff sucks.

Re:Not news

[LaskoVortex]

There are millions of $ being put into sequencing the human core gut microbes, but apparently there are no core gut microbes, and this human microbiome sequencing strategy needs rethinking.

What this paper means is that you can spend billions of dollars sequencing the gut bacteria of thousands of different people and never get the same Nature paper twice. It also means that the number of boring "we sequenced everything we could find" papers in Nature and Science is going to skyrocket from what is already too many.

Re:Not news

[snowraver1]

Let's hope so...

Re:Not news

[Missing_dc]

Since most of the useful bacteria likely live lower in the digestive system, eating your shit might be more productive for those unfortunate people.

Re:Not news

[Anonymous Coward]

>>I heard about it in the radio

What kind of radio do you have? Sadly, I can't fit into mine.

Re:And it's ever changing

[Genda]

Though I would also recommend boiling the water in Tijuana, the additional bacteria you pick up there will not give you more energy...

Re:Not news

[camperdave]

You have obviously never dipped your pen in senior center ink, my friend.

Only seniors and calligraphers use pens that you need to dip into ink. The rest of us use ball points or cartridge driven quills. Quick to use, they are ready at a moment's notice. They are far less messy and less prone to leakage. They have greater "staying power", as there is no need to go back to the well for a refill.

Re:the whole division of bacteria into species may

[Anonymous Coward]

And by volume it's about 3 grams.