Purpose of Appendix Believed Found 235
CambodiaSam sent in this story, which opens: "Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut.
That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week.
For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function. Surgeons removed them routinely. People live fine without them.
The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most are good and help digest food.
But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the intestines die or are purged. Diseases such as cholera or amoebic dysentery would clear the gut of useful bacteria. The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case."
Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't find the research but I thought a long time ago that a German study was done to find out why polio was "a middle class disease." If I recall they found that poor children were exposed to it since birth and rarely suffered from it since they were exposed to it always. The middle class children would be protected as infants but once exposed to it, their bodies would not be able to fight it. The upper class would take all costs to reduce exposure to it at all times--and they could.
Now this research is interestingly related in that appendicitis may be something that occurs due to our lack of exposure to diseases that destroy all the germs in our body (cholera & certain types of dysentery). Should something happen that would threaten this, our bodies respond poorly to it and the appendix flares up. As this article notes, appendicitis occurs less frequently in underdeveloped countries. Perhaps this is more reinforcement for the idea that protecting your children from germs is a double edged sword.
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Insightful)
I have studied (some) biology, especially from an evolutionary perspective. There are aspects of our immune system that deal with macroscopic threats - parasites, foreign bodies, etc. In modern, industrialized society intestinal parasites and unremoved splinters aren't really a problem so a part of our immune system is left with very little to do. Like a bored child or pet, our immune system goes looking for something to do. It overreacts to pollen, proteins in common foods, and animal dander.
With the proliferation of antibacterial products, I worry about two things. In the short term, what kind of new allergies will people develop as chemistry continues to replace people's immune systems? In the long term, what kind of backlash are we going to see when microbes begin to develop some sort of resistance to alcohol and other antibacterial agents?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
With the proliferation of antibacterial products, I worry about two things. In the short term, what kind of new allergies will people develop as chemistry continues to replace people's immune systems? In the long term, what kind of backlash are we going to see when microbes begin to develop some sort of resistance to alcohol and other antibacterial agents?
Precisely the idea behind a story [slashdot.org] I submitted a while ago cautioning the use of antibacterial soap--especially since the truth is it does little or nothing more than regular soap.
:-) Well, at least I still have my freedom of choice not to take Tylenol when I have a headache, a glass of scotch usually fixes it better anyways.
I could spout more of my fears of an overly medicated, overly hygienic society but my neck is really sore from the tinfoil fortress atop my head.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the medicine, which is some form or another of alcohol was used to help the kids sleep, to make it easier on the parents. . . .
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Informative)
From my research and discussions with doctors etc I've come to learn that bacteria adapt to antibiotics because these agents are very precise and destroy a very narrow type of microorganism, whereas alcohol, chlorine bleach, and all other cleaning agents wipe everything out. There has been no (to my knowledge) increase in resistance to bleach used in the kitchen for instance. It would be like gaining resistance to fire. The properties of these antibacterial agents is just too violent against the cell for evolution to do anything about it.
I'm sure this could have been said better, but basically antibacterial soap will not create super-deadly strains of bacteria, whereas continued use of antibiotics has and will.
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Funny)
> "I was also worried about bacteria adapting to alcohol etc. "
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a beetle on the British isles that lays its eggs in shallow water. So the female flies around, looking for small water collections (small lakes, ponds, that sort of thing) in which to lay her eggs. But her detection system is simplistic, mainly looking for ground surfaces of a certain size that polarize light. And that includes stuff like wet asphalt and newly washed cars. So there's a lot of beetles diving right into newly clean cars, making a mess at the very least opportune moment.
But even without cars and asphalt, it's pretty clear her detection system is on the rough side. The reason they don't have better "pond detectors" is most likely that the current one is good enough; a lot of the beetles do hit good water, and a more complex system would penalize the individuals with it (in energy and development time as juveniles if nothing else) more than they'd gain by being more precise with their egg-laying attempts.
Similarly, from a bacterias point of view, a disinfected surface is rare - really rare. Any adaptation to in with even a slightly negative side effect is likely to disappear unless the individuals and their offspring can rely on staying in that environment for a long time, making it a separate niche. Which they can't since a disinfected surface normally doesn't stay that way. There is no long-term survival benefit in being good at surviving that environment.
This is why cutting down on antibiotic use would not just slow down resistance, but can actually reverse it. Make the antibiotic rare enough and resistance genes won't remain.
Re: (Score:2)
Plus there's one bug Mycobacterium marinum that is zoonetic, that is, it corsses a species barrier (kinda rare, most pathogens are very h
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:4, Informative)
I like your fire analogy, though. Very apt.
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Funny)
That's exactly why I clean my hands by setting them on fire. Anything left after it's been put out can stay.
Re: (Score:2)
I seem to remember hearing that there are some bacteria evolving (pardon me, consulting with their Creator about a small redesign) resistance to low levels of chlorine, like the 3ppm or so commonly found in swimming pools. I haven't heard much, and there's been no general call to migrate away from chlorine to something else. Municipal water supplies have moved to chloramine, but I don't believe that's related to chlorine resistance.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yup. Right on the money--although I might add rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, type I diabe
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't find the research but I thought a long time ago that a German study was done to find out why polio was "a middle class disease." If I recall they found that poor children were exposed to it since birth and rarely suffered from it since they were exposed to it always. The middle class children would be protected as infants but once exposed to it, their bodies would not be able to fight it. The upper class would take all costs to reduce exposure to it at all times--and they could.
Now this research is interestingly related in that appendicitis may be something that occurs due to our lack of exposure to diseases that destroy all the germs in our body (cholera & certain types of dysentery). Should something happen that would threaten this, our bodies respond poorly to it and the appendix flares up. As this article notes, appendicitis occurs less frequently in underdeveloped countries. Perhaps this is more reinforcement for the idea that protecting your children from germs is a double edged sword.
The other way to interpret it is that people with severe allergies and who would suffer from polio are exposed to it early and die. As most of the groups outlined have higher infant mortality. It may not be a full explanation but it's certainly a contributing factor. From a evolutionary standpoint those who would have died from allergies/polio/germs due to a weaker system survive in "middle class" society and thus what is rare among the lower class amplifies overtime in the middle class until it reaches soem steady state %.
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of what evolution teaches is a thing called "Selective pressure". If there is no pressure, then functionality is lost. For example, species that adapt to caves tend to go blind because destructive mutations to the eyes pose no greater survival risk.
The same is true for the lower classes vs middle vs upper classes as mentioned in parent. As sickle cell, thalessemia, reactive airway diseases become more treatable, their prevalence will increase or at least come to a steady state. This will also allow other diseases or complications of these conditions to manifest. An example of this would be side-effects of anti-retroviral agents. They can be quite devestating in some cases, but does that mean we stop prescribing them? You can only justify that if you - like Hitler (I thank thee Godwin for this one) - feel that the weak should die to strengthen the gene pool.
Many people are opposed to the idea of going on hemodialysis or getting an organ transplant. They site examples of people doing poorly on these therapies - about the amount of time they spend in the hospital - about the slew of medications they are on. One must bear in mind that these complications are far better than the alternative - a short miserable existence.
Look at the life-expectancy of the lower classes vs the middle class and you will see that hygiene has some significant advantages. Soap and antimicrobial agents are one of the few medical instruments that have had a great impact on the overall life-span of society. Most other advances barely left a dent in the overall life-span.
if someone says its better to have rampant cholera and dysentery wiping out huge populations of children - potentially doubling or tripling infant mortality - just so we don't have as much appendicitis, I would question their judgement greatly.
As for air purifiers (mentioned somewhere in this thread) - they possibly prevent interstitial lung disease on top of removing allergens.
Re: (Score:2)
That's true - and I believe that in the future (rich) people will be paying for training their immune systems, just like they do now by paying for going to the gym,
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Informative)
If you are talking about immunotherapy for the treatment of allergies, the frequency of the injections is more than "every few months". It's more like "once a week". The injections provide an ever-increasing amount of the substance the patient is allergic to in an effort to get the patient's immune system to "chill out". The last time I was receiving these shots, I was getting them every five days (Mon, Fri, Wed, Mon, Fri, etc.). I spent a lot of time sitting in the waiting room at the allergy clinic (you have to sit in the clinic after receiving the shot so the clinic staff can monitor you for an adverse reaction to the shot).
http://www.allergycapital.com.au/Pages/immth.html [allergycapital.com.au]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Except more people in the world die of germs than they do of things like appendicitis. In those underdeveloped countries you mention, its not uncommon for people to die of those diseases we are sheltered against. The concept of the vast majority of children surviving into and beyond adulthood is a rather new one and pretty much only present in developed countries.
Yes, there may be some negatives from living a life sheltered from disease, but the net benefit is obviously good.
Re:Polio, Asthma & Allergies (Score:5, Informative)
I think you may have it backwards: You are saying that there are no farmers with asthma because working on a farm prevents asthma. It's more likely that there are no farmers with asthma because people with asthma do not become farmers. Even though I (someone who has had asthma my entire life) have helped bale hay, milk cows and shovel manure, there is no way that I would *think* of becoming a farmer. Wearing a dust mask while baling hay or doing other chores on the farm is no fun. Being in the barn without some sort of mask is a surefire recipe for having a meeting with Mr. Albuterol later in the day.
I could come-up with a parallel to your "I've never known farmers with asthma" story by saying "I've never seen a one-armed crab fisherman on the Discovery TV show "Deadliest Catch". I could infer from watch the Deadliest Catch that crab fishing must be a pretty safe line of work because there are no one-armed guys working the crab pots. The reality is there are no one-armed crab fisherman because the one-armed guys do not sign-up for a job that they know would be extremely hazardous for them to do with just one arm.
This is why I recommend against anyone installing an air purifier in their home. It's a great idea--if you never plan on leaving your home.
I'm sorry, I didn't catch the name of the medical school you graduated from or where you did your residency in allergy/asthma. Could you post that information one more time? I have an IQAir HealthPro Plus http://www.iqair.us/residential/roomairpurifiers/healthproplus.php [iqair.us] that runs in my bedroom every night. That air purifier filters the dust, pollen and other allergens out of air inside my house so that I can breathe more easily - especially during the spring and fall when thing like tree pollen, ragweed and alternaria are bad. The indoor air purifiers also help when local "air quality alerts" are issued. Even if the air outside is filled with small pollutants that are harmful to my lungs, I can come home at the end of the day, run the IQAir and have decent breathable air.
Here is a little more background on local air quality issues:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/air/health/status.asp [wi.gov]
Regarding your comment about air purifiers being a bad idea,
I can't
Re: (Score:2)
Which part of my post are you objecting to?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just more anecdotal worthless evidence.
Oh, thank you sir! I now have ... let's see here, one ... two ... TWO data points to build my research around. Things are going swimmingly.
I'll be taking the well known "global warming" approach where I already know what is going to prove with my research so your data point will have to be either an anomaly or possibly tweaked. I may have to remove a word from your testimony and replace "not" with "..." but I do thank you. I am well on my way of utilizing the corporate scientific method!
1. C
Re: (Score:2)
No you now have an additional piece of evidence that don't fit nicely with your earlier hypothesis. It also suggests that airborne pollutants like smoke might weigh more heavily in asthma than kids being exposed to germs. Just because the GP offers something that doesn't whole heartedly support your +5 theory doesn't mean you have to turn into a snarky jackass.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Paper Abstract (Score:5, Informative)
The human vermiform ("worm-like") appendix is a 5 to 10 cm long and 0.5 to 1
cm wide pouch that extends from the cecum of the large bowel. The architecture of the
human appendix is unique among mammals, and few mammals other than humans have
an appendix at all. The function of the human appendix has long been a matter of debate,
with the structure often considered to be a vestige of evolutionary development despite
evidence to the contrary based on comparative primate anatomy. The appendix is thought
to have some immune function based on its association with substantial lymphatic tissue,
although the specific nature of that putative function is unknown. Based (a) on a recently
acquired understanding of immune-mediated biofilm formation by commensal bacteria in
the mammalian gut, (b) on biofilm distribution in the large bowel, (c) the association of
lymphoid tissue with the appendix, (d) the potential for biofilms to protect and support
colonization by commensal bacteria, and (e) on the architecture of the human bowel, we
propose that the human appendix is well suited as a "safe house" for commensal bacteria,
providing support for bacterial growth and potentially facilitating re-inoculation of the
colon in the event that the contents of the intestinal tract are purged following exposure to a pathogen.
Obligatory (Score:2, Funny)
Initial configuration... (Score:2)
Neat.
the purpose of the appendix (Score:5, Funny)
System reboot: continue? (Score:5, Funny)
Gives a new meaning to the term "stack dump". I myself am currently suffering from a stop error. :-(
Re: (Score:2)
"produces" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
From my perspective (Score:4, Funny)
Unless you have access to surgeons. Yay modern medicine!
I had two (Score:2)
Something good to know, if you ever have a pain on the left side and someone tells you it can't be your appendix.
Re: (Score:2)
The lifetime risk for acute appendicitis is 8.6% for men (http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/a/acute_appendicitis/prevalence.htm) so 91.4% of people never have a problem with their appendix. It's good to know that it's serving a useful purpose for those people.
Support contract (Score:3, Funny)
The appendix's job is to reboot the digestive system in that case.
So your appendix is run by Microsoft support.
Keeping kids healthy (Score:5, Informative)
1. Breastfeed. Not just for 6 weeks either. Worldwide average weaning age is 3-4yrs. U.S. is about the worst at this.
2. Let your kids eat dirt. No, don't encourage it. Just don't freak when it happens.
3. Be very conservative with immunizations. How many middle class US children are really going to get exposed to Hep? And since thermerisol has finally been removed from vaccination products, the autism rate has finally stopped exploding (despite the fact that studies show no link between the two).
4. LOTS of physical contact! Breastfed babies get this. It stimulates brain development.
5. Love the little knuckleheads despite everything.
6. Learn basic biology and medicine yourself. Your offspring, your responsibility. Knowledge and common sense go a long way towards health.
We're still learning about biology and medicine. Oh shit, you mean bacteria can evolve to become resistant to antibiotics, and that blanketing the population with antibiotics (antibaterical handsoap, anyone?) causes bigger problems than it solves? I've never heard of a staph infection from a home birth. When women give birth at home around all the same germs they are exposed to anyway, postpartum infections are almost nonexistent.
OTOH, I will take exception to the idea that there were no allergies and less sickness among rural populations 2 generations ago. There were. The difference is that those kids were just labeled "sickly" and often died back then. Is it a bad thing that those kids have a chance now?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Keeping kids healthy (Score:4, Informative)
But just to reinforce your point, I'll add 7. Don't slather on the antibiotic ointment when you get a paper cut. Don't use Lysol in your kitchen - use a bleach solution if soap is not going to cut it.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
I concur. My father-in-law, a farming Depression baby, suffered from asthma his whole life, and the last twenty years of his life were a state of constant illness, mostly from the damage he'd suffered pre-treatment. (Though in the late
Re:Keeping kids healthy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Mostly. There are still rural parts of the U.S. where extruded surgical steel is in short supply, or rusts too easily (think of the humidity in the Mississippi delta), and hypodermic dirty fingers are still used for injections there.
Re: (Score:2)
2. Let your kids eat dirt. No, don't encourage it. Just don't freak when it happens.
3. Be very conservative with immunizations. How many middle class US children are really going to get exposed to Hep? And since thermerisol has finally been removed from vaccination products, the autism rate has finally stopped exploding (despite the fact that studies show no link between the two).
4. LOTS of p
Re: (Score:2)
(in all seriousness, however, there was a sci-fi novel I read that was relevent, about a kid who was raised in a sterile technological environment, who freaked out, for example, in being faced with the prospect of eating a mere orange, but then ask anyone today where their food comes from, and about 4/5ths of the time they'll say "From the store". Go
another body part that is often yanked (Score:4, Insightful)
From TFA:
And what about the foreskin?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Outside of some religious circles, the practice of butchering newborns is a very new one. A recent study has shown men who have been butchered have only a fraction of the sexual pleasure as normal, intact men
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
HIV infection rates for an males is low. really low. Doing high risk activities make sit higher (anal sex, prostitutes, IV drugs). But I doubt the difference from 2.0% to 2.5% is really going to justify circumcision.
Well, duh (Score:2)
And yeah.... if you pour water on it, and set it out in the sun, I'm sure it'll become a haven for bacteria.... but would you really want to do that?
My high school bio teach told me (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Bungie really does control the world... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Appendectomies save lives (Score:4, Insightful)
Hmmmm... (Score:2)
I have often wondered about something like this. When I was young I had no food, stomach or digestive problems or symptoms at all. I had my appendix out at age 14. Then in my mid twenties I developed all sorts of digestive problems. I'm Lactose intolerant though nobody else in my family is at all (all of english/scottish/german descent). Many foods cause a good deal of stomach tension and discomfort. Yeah go ahead, chalk it up to stress. I've got a job that promises a fantastic pension, I get four months a
Purpose? (Score:3, Interesting)
Purpose = Fundamentalism (Score:2)
For fundamentalist christians, yes, it does. Creationism would be meaningless if their god created flaws.
Follow the money trail of studies finding purposes for useless vestiges, and you'll quickly conclude that this usually is pseudo-science, seeking to prove a spiritual opinion with biased "research".
It would surprise me very much if the drivers for this "study" didn't turn out to be christians.
--
*Art
Re: (Score:2)
Purpose of Appendix Believed Found (Score:2)
It makes perfect sense... (Score:2)
Re:Reboot? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose you could poke equally as much fun back at the computer science community with:
Why nitpick terminology when everyone borrows it. Accept descriptive words, don't be prescriptive--I think that's what makes languages fun and interesting instead of boring, dry & dead.
Re:Reboot? (Score:4, Informative)
When a computer is turned on, it needs to load some code to run. In order to do this, it needs some code to tell it which code to load. In order to load that code, it needs some code to tell it what to load, and so on. The solution is to have the computer metaphorically pick itself up by its bootstraps to get the first bit loaded. The code it then runs became known as the bootstrap, and later the term was corrupted to boot loader, and other variations.
Re: (Score:2)
"The solution is to have the computer metaphorically pick itself up by its bootstraps to get the first bit loaded. "
It was always a poor metaphor.
The reality is that once the cpu is initialized, it executes whatever code is found at a fixed, hard-coded address. That's not "lifting yourself up by your bootstraps."
Pul the cpu and ram out and you'll see nothing happens. No bios initialization, no post, etc.
Re:Reboot? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In the old days, you might enter the bootstrap on a front panel (in the snow over your head uphill both ways). In it's simplest form a set of toggle switches connected to the address and data bus and a pushbutton to strobe the write line (yes, manually, CPU not yet running). Eventually, the bootstrap code started being placed in a ROM and instead of forcing an address into the program counter, it would go to a defined value when reset strobes (which the chipset does when the power supply stabilizes).
For t
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Evolution doesn't approach the best solution, just the solution that's better than the others in existence at the time.
Re:Evolution would have gotten rid of it (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Evolution would have gotten rid of it (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And since evolution never stops, you cant really predict when something like
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
>"Evolution would have gotten rid of it if this part were useless."
Evolution takes time. Hence the darwin awards [darwinawards.com]
Also, its a "moving target", since evolution alters the environment (predators, food chain, etc.), one consequence is the current "solution" is always sub-prime.
Re:Evolution would have gotten rid of it (Score:5, Informative)
No. Evolution would have gotten rid of it if it caused a net increase in the risk of death between menarche and menopause (males simply don't matter here).
Now, we might presume at first glance that since appendicitis can kill, and a not-inconsiderable portion of the population will at some point get it. But the lower incidence in underdeveloped countries suggests that its modern danger to us may result largely from lifestyle; and, as we currently chop it out at the first sign of inflammation, we may also overstate the actual risk of death from appendicitis in the absence of treatment.
Evolution/God does their work quite well I guess.
You can believe what you want about a deity, and what mechanisms it put into place to run the universe. But beware of animism by ascribing "intent" to abstract statistical descriptions of phenomena.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Well said! Okay, my apologies for failing to give you enough credit... I took your previous statement as the all-too-common idea that evolution somehow actively removes unneeded parts wholesale from a species.
I still disagree somewhat, though much more resprctfully, in that the entropic view (over a finite number of itera
Re: Evolution would have gotten rid of it (Score:5, Informative)
It is not exactly true that evolution would get rid of a part that has become useless. Evolution through natural selection would tend to remove mainly deleterous (harmful) structures, but structures that are neither harmful nor helpful are masked from natural selection. To explain the loss of the vestigial structures, we must realize that the individual organism has only so many resources (energy, molecules, etc) with which to survive. This causes natural selection to select against structures that use up the organism's resources without contributing to its survival (for example in whales, who still have vestigial hips and leg bones, which serve no function and are much reduced in size).
This leads to the question of why the structure is still present. There are two major reasons why we would still observe the structure today: time and cost.
If natural selection only started working on removing the structure in recent time (geologically speaking), it would not be finished instantly in one generation, as natural selection works by tiny modifications that are build on generation after generation. Hence the canon of natural history: Natura non facit saltum (nature makes no leap).
A second possibility for its continued presence is that further reduction in its size or its total absence would be more disadvantageous the organism's fitness than its presence. This seems to be what the study is suggesting, that even though it is not used to the full extent it once was, there is some tiny function that is still useful enough to justify the resources the organism spends on it.
Re: (Score:2)
When I was in high school, I remember our science teacher talking about this. Since the appendix doesn't do anything it is a vestigial organ. Why would God give us an organ that doesn't do anything. This fact disproved God. In fact, he argued, evolution is the only mechanism that would produce vestigial organs, and in fact evolution PROVES that there must be vestigial organs left over after changes in biology cause
Re: (Score:2)
Your science teacher was an idiot.
He should have known that that not knowing what something was for doesn't prove it has no use. For all we know its the organ that's going to save us from the Great Plague of 2045.
That aside, the God described in the Bible does a metric ton of stuff that makes no sense. And the design of creatures abounds with bizarre useless designs.
Consider the bedbug Xylocaris Maculipennis, whose reproductive process includes "homosexual stabbing rape".
Some bedbug
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They can't use this to push ID since it's a straw man argument. Evolution never suggested or required that appendix doesn't have a role in our body, or never had one.
You can hear poor religious folk and poor scientists use it in their arguments, but in such a pol
Re: (Score:2)
All this obviously says nothing whatsoever about ID
Re: (Score:2)
Jeez, your post is practically the definition of flamebait, as all it accomplishes is to stir up controversy.
Re: (Score:2)
Creationists have claimed for a long time that the Appendix has a function, Evolutionists have attacked that claim vigorously, the fact that it seems to have a function is evidence in favor of Creationist arguments primarily as they have been the ones claiming that it has a functio
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Suggesting that the religious seek the credibility of the track record of scie
Re:So we're all scumbags .. (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, bacteria are the most populous living organisms in the world, and they're developing resistance to all our antibiotics, so its only a matter of time before we see stuff like ...:
[_] I for one welcome our bacterial scum pond overlords ... oh, they're ALREADY a cluster ... and drug resistant - I guess we're cluster-f$cked!
[_] I have no intestine, you ignorant clod scumbag!
[_] Imagine a beowulf cluster of
[_] All your base nucleotides belong to us
[_] In Soviet Russia antibiotics kill YOU!
Mind you, we're talking about a culture that still insists on doctor-shopping to get antibiotics for viral infections, and over-indulges in anti-bacterial wipes, plastics, etc., to the point of both compromising our own immune systems, and breeding super-bugs.
Re:So we're all scumbags .. (Score:4, Informative)
The blurb posted on slashdot states that in the human body, there are MORE BACTERIA than there are HUMAN CELLS. Which would suggest that a minimum of 51% of the human body is made up of bacteria and only 49% (or less) of our body is made of things like . . . water, carbon and other . . . you know . . . human composition stuff.
One meaning of "more bacteria than human cells" means simply that there are a larger number of bacteria than they are human cells, not a larger mass of bacteria than human cells. For example, e. coli is about 1/100 the size of a human cell. So if there was an equal number of e. coli cells and human cells in the body, it would make the mass proportion of e. coli cells about 1% not 50%.
By the way, bacteria are also made of water, carbon and other ... you now ... organic composition stuff. Humans don't have a monopoly on that composition.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Gross misunderstanding (Score:2)
Were you by any chance on any form of powerful antibiotics? The use of probiotics in medicine is usually for people who have been on antibiotics powerful enough to kill everything in the body like vancomycin or ciprofloxacin, including the bacteria that are supposed to help you out.
I remember learning in school that it used
Re: (Score:2)