What the Mites On Your Face Say About Where You Came From (sciencemag.org) 72
sciencehabit writes with news about how the hair mites you carry can be used to determine your ancestry. "Right now, deep in your hair follicles and sweat glands, tiny mites are feeding on dead skin cells, mating, and laying eggs. The microscopic arthropods, known as Demodex folliculorum, live on virtually all mammals—especially their faces—and cause no harm under most circumstances. Now, a new study shows that people of different ancestry carry different subgroups of the bugs, and that the mites' distribution throughout the global population may even reflect how our species has migrated and evolved over the course of history."
Alian mites (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks to the mites, we might finally find out if we come from extraterrestrial origins.
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Re:Hair growth factor? (Score:4, Funny)
Trump had a Tribble transplant.
(Sorry, I can't kick Trump joke habit. Therapy failed.)
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My theory: That thing on Trump's head is an illegal space alien that forces him to go full retard when he speaks in public.
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Are there legal space aliens? Is there a visa application process for space aliens? Or if there is none, would they not all be legally immigrated? Or did you mean "illegal" as in illegal to posses? So many questions!
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His wall to keep them out could be a marvel of construction. Nevermind the unintended consequences of that.
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Well, USA cooling. I thought the intended wall was only to keep aliens out of US territory
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(Sorry, I can't kick Trump joke habit. Therapy failed.)
Skip the therapy. Continue with the jokes.
Tip the veal. Try the waitress.
For me the best part of a Presidential Election are the jokes.
A lot of time, the candidates write their own jokes . . . unintentionally. That's God's gift to the late night talk show hosts.
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I still have plenty of Asperger neckbeard jokes left.
Ewwww! (Score:3)
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Jesus, I knew somebody would come along and suggest Soylent News. No, it is not the answer.
The submissions there aren't much different than here, from what I've seen. We get Hugh Pickens here, and they get Hugh Pickens there. If you think Slashdot has a problem with too many political stories, well I think that things are much worse there.
It's also typical for news to hit Slashdot before it hits Soylent News, and Slashdot isn't known for reporting on issues in a timely manner!
The moderation over at Soylent
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Ever try ad block?
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To state heretical truth.
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So you can mod your own comments up!
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"Guess what slashdot, I am sick of this website. "
Good. We can't get rid of too many ACs.
Who Fucked to Beget Me v Who I Fucked (Score:2, Offtopic)
Are we born with them? (Score:4, Interesting)
When we are born we are so clean that even our stomachs do not have bacteria. It is hypothesized that our first dose of this bacteria comes from normal child birth and then we are put in our mothers arms so kissing and cuddling further transfers the bacteria. Is this cuddling and kissing where we get the first face mites too or are we born with them?
Re: Are we born with them? (Score:1)
Guess that depends on the average proximity of human faces to your mother's vagina...
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That's somewhat interesting. Does this heritage thing hold true for c section babies and babies not placed with his mother for various reasons (death, adoption - surrogate mothers and so on ).
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There is a link between C-section and increased allergies, and it's theorised that this is one potential reason why.
There's a link between breastfed babies (who inherit bacteria, antibodies, white blood cells in the milk) and bottle-fed babies (which it's much more sterile having been sterilised/pasteurised and being non-human lacking the antibodies and white blood cells).
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It is hypothesized that our first dose of this bacteria comes from normal child birth and then we are put in our mothers arms so kissing and cuddling further transfers the bacteria.
What about babies born prematurely via cesarean that are placed immediately in an incubator and not touched by ungloved hands?
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That is one of the supposeded 'cons' of having a cesarean. The baby probably still picks up bacteria when it is given to the mother to be fed and doesn't need much of it till its old enough to consume solids.
Re:Are we born with them? (Score:4, Informative)
In fact, for the first two weeks after birth, the immune system is actually suppressed (while the baby has the antibodies conferred from the mother, immune activity is suppressed). It is believed this is to get a head start in populating symbiotic bacteria in the stomach, intestines and skin.
Presumably a lot of touching confers it as well - our skins are full of bacteria, and on it live some species that we live symbiotically with - being territorial, any foreign invader gets attacked by them before they have a chance to invade us.
And we live in a very dirty world - there are more foreign cells in and on our bodies than there are human cells, so the merest touches really help spawn colonies on a baby. We're so dirty it probably isn't possible to get anything completely sterile - instead, by sterile we really mean free from contaminants that could cause harm. All the other stuff we live with doesn't really harm us, and we live in peace with them.
Death Mites (Score:4, Funny)
In Australia, the face mites try to kill you.
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In Australia, the face mites try to kill you.
Strewth mite, I dun geddit?
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In Australia, the face mites try to kill you.
Wrong. In Australia they're docile and vegetarian - that's why they're known as vegemites.
And when the ethnic groups mix? (Score:2)
I've got ancestors from at least six countries; where do my mites come from?
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The goa'uld.
They mite (Score:2)
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This really bugs me.
Are the hosts all in the US? (Score:2)
Yay (Score:1)
The Voices (Score:2)
What the Mites On Your Face Say About Where You Came From
Ha, I knew those voices weren't just in my head!