Lovers Share Colonies of Skin Microbes, Study Finds (metro.co.uk) 93
Aneri Pattani reports via The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternate source): Couples who live together share a lot of things: beds, bathrooms, food, toiletries. But one thing they might not expect to share? Skin bacteria. In a study published Thursday in mSystems, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, researchers studied the skin microbiomes of 10 sexually active, heterosexual couples living together. A microbiome is a mini-ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms living on and in the body. Each square centimeter of skin hosts between one million and one billion microorganisms, according to the study. After analyzing 330 skin swabs collected from 17 parts of the body on each participant, the researchers found that each person significantly influenced the microbial communities on a lover's skin. In fact, computer algorithms relying on microbial data were able to accurately match couples with up to 86 percent accuracy.
This is Slashdot (Score:3)
Re:This is Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
The cleaning lady asked to use my computer and now she's pregnant.
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The cleaning lady asked to use my computer and now she's pregnant.
Ahnold, is that you?
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Then she's terrible at cleaning, it would seem. Also, you might want to get yourself checked for STDs, this transfer of "material" goes both ways.
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3 living-together with their significant others (all heterosexual, and only 4 of them overweight, for that matter)
Nerds, where 4 out of 3 are overweight!
Of course male nerds get married. The biological imperative and all, with women who will, consciously or unconsciously, look for a partner that is stable and can provide for her children. Female nerds may have a somewhat harder time.
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The biological imperative and all, with women who will, consciously or unconsciously, look for a partner that is stable and can provide for her children.
Also, unconsciously, they will look for a wild and exciting unreliable partner, because she wants his genes for her sons and grandsons.
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Affairs (Score:1)
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I would be surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
...if this *weren't* the case.
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Agreed. With regular contact, you'd expect this sort of thing, particularly if they're also sharing a bed for sleeping in addition to coupling.
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Hint to researchers: You'll share your follicle mites as well. Jeez.
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Do you know what going only by "common sense" gets you? Aristotle's theory of Impetus instead of Newtonian momentum. It is important to actually check your theories. Otherwise even smart people can go completely wrong if they refuse to calibrate their theories to reality.
Captcha: informed
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Dude for the simple minded. Understanding the biome that infects us all, it's impact, postive and negative, is essential to future health, as is how it spreads and changes and when it becomes a threat and even weirder when you should actually have a more healthy one that suits your genetics, actually smeared all over you. There is the variety, what it constitutes, why it is unhealthy or just as importantly healthy, what trace elements are produced that are worthwhile, what worthwhile functions are exhibited
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...if this *weren't* the case.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that, "What doesn't kill you . . . makes you stronger!" So I think he was talking about this effect.
. . . and that was the whole point behind that apocryphal 70's CSI sex game known as "Rubik's Pubes", but the popularity of that game has waned, since folks don't have any pubic hair any more.
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The question in TFS seems ... just ... incredible :
I can't see how someone with even the slightest knowledge of anatomy and animal behaviour (includes hoomins) could actually write such garbage with a straight face. Contact transfers material - first rule of forensics (so basic, it might even get mentioned in the intro of one of those dozens of American forensics cop shows, though the actual principal goes back to a mid-19th Century Frenc
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The Cleveland Steamers are my favorite minor league baseball team.
How fast? (Score:5, Interesting)
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iBiome has detected a 43% change in your wifes skin biome.
would you like to see a list of divorce lawyers in your area?
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No need for a service. Just use your nose. Black people even wrote a song about it called "Smell Yo' Dick". Google it.
But there is a pretty easy way around it I've been employing for years each time after I have sex with a prostitute. All you have to to is get a dirty pair of your wife's underwear out of the laundry, or snag a tampon out of the bathroom trash.
After you have sex with the prostitute and get back home, moderately moisten your chosen item with a spray bottle of lukewarm water and just littl
Re:How fast?; how romantic? (Score:2, Funny)
I don't understand some peoples hobbies, comics, trainspotting and now this.
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Admit it, you just like to fuck tampons
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Only 86%? (Score:2)
I'm surprised it's so low.
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most of society will share the same major organisms. And places like schools, and malls, will lend to less alpha-diversity.
There are also only so many particular substances that are benign enough to not trigger an immune reaction (from body, or other microroganisms), and correspondingly equilavent statis levels.
I would wager that there is lower per-person diversity, vs diversity within the colonies (lowering alpha-, increasing beta- diversity).
And that it's very region specific (social networks, and general
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The marital contract has... (Score:2, Funny)
Germs of endearment.
How about that (Score:2)
cooties are real
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cooties are real
Yes - but they're totally worth it!
Re: How about that (Score:1)
Gotta catch em all!
Well duh. (Score:1)
Soon to be cited (Score:2)
Any other effects? (Score:3)
They needed a study to figure this out? (Score:1)
Every woman I've ever lived with my dick starts to smell like her pussy and vice versa after a few months. I just assumed this was common fucking knowledge? Can I please get some of this grant money they are wasting on this idiotic crap?
Help me confirm some research? (Score:1)
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Share microbes - (Score:2)
Not news to me (Score:2)
Honestly, I had a girlfriend I was "allergic" to. I had an itch between my fingers I couldn't get rid of it. We found later without a doubt it was her.
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besides perfumes, soaps and lotions there are many foods that cause various substances to be in skin oils and other secretions. It is much more likely you were allergic to something like that
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besides perfumes, soaps and lotions there are many foods that cause various substances to be in skin oils and other secretions. It is much more likely you were allergic to something like that
Can't answer just something she wore, secreted, or carried (Dem dere microbes) the entire time we were together.
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besides perfumes, soaps and lotions there are many foods that cause various substances to be in skin oils and other secretions. It is much more likely you were allergic to something like that
Can't answer just something she wore, secreted, or carried (Dem dere microbes) the entire time we were together.
I was "allergic" to her.
See how much shorter that was.
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and factually false in all likelihood
other microorganisms? (Score:2)
"A microbiome is a mini-ecosystem of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms living on and..."
'other microorganisms' ?? How many other types of microorganisms are there..?