Wired Magazine: Atlas of the Human Ecosystem
You are an ecosystem unto yourself. That is to say that you house hundreds of species of microbes inside your body - the microbiome.
Some are helpful, like the E. coli that were named for your lower intestine, and some are less helpful, like the Heliobacter pylori that causes ulcers and esophageal cancer. Those teeming communities are connected to your brain via chemicals in your bloodstream and help defend you from infection by fighting off invaders in your lungs, stomach and mouth.
Fun fact: An obese person has (on average) only 569 species of microbes in their gut compared to 783 species in a lean gut.
You are a bug house. Learn more at Wired’s Atlas of the Human Ecosystem!
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paranerdia reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
incredible. Our bodies...amazing, which is why we should keep them
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This was featured in #Science
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