Typist
June 14, 2012, 11:31pm
1
Just heard this from a scientist on NPR. There are ten times as many bacteria and virus cells in your body as there are human cells. You are a germ civilization.
phyllo
June 15, 2012, 12:30am
2
I find that hard to believe.
Typist
June 15, 2012, 9:17am
3
sciencedaily.com/releases/20 … 085914.htm
ScienceDaily (June 3, 2008) — The number of bacteria living within the body of the average healthy adult human are estimated to outnumber human cells 10 to 1. Changes in these microbial communities may be responsible for digestive disorders, skin diseases, gum disease and even obesity. Despite their vital imporance in human health and disease, these communities residing within us remain largely unstudied and a concerted research effort needs to be made to better understand them, say researchers June 3 at the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_microbiome#Bacteria
It is estimated that 500 to 1000 species of bacteria live in the human gut[2] and a roughly similar number on the skin.[3][4] Bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, and there are at least ten times as many bacteria as human cells in the body (approximately 1014 versus 1013).[5][6] Though members of the flora are found on all surfaces exposed to the environment (on the skin and eyes, in the mouth, nose, small intestine), the vast majority of bacteria live in the large intestine.
phyllo
June 15, 2012, 2:18pm
4
You are a symbiont.
This is an interesting article:scientificamerican.com/artic … human-ones
More than 50% of your excrement is dead bacteria. Indeed not only are germs everywhere, but it would be much harder to digest food without them.
Depending on how you measure success they are also the most successful life forms, they are by far and away the most diverse and fecund group of organisms on the planet, existing everywhere from arctic wastelands to volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean, with millions of different species.
That was an interesting read, I didn’t know half of that.
Maybe, but what was it like BEFORE the war?
Moreno
June 16, 2012, 12:56pm
7
Even our very cells are the result of mergers between organisms. See, mitochondria, origins.
But then, the say we are germs or colonies of germs, is reductionism at its least fine.
A brain is carbon, oxygen…etc. But on the other hand it is not just those ‘parts’.
Typist
June 16, 2012, 1:02pm
8
I didn’t say we are germs, I said “You Are A Germ!”
Not me though, I’m a troll virus.
The human cell is mammoth in comparison to most such invaders.
Typist:
I didn’t say we are germs, I said “You Are A Germ!”
Not me though, I’m a troll virus.
I’m not a Germ…
tentative
June 17, 2012, 5:49pm
10
The human cell is mammoth in comparison to most such invaders.
Typist:
I didn’t say we are germs, I said “You Are A Germ!”
Not me though, I’m a troll virus.
I’m not a Germ…
And your politicians are both…
Them thar ain’t MY polioticians
Typist
June 17, 2012, 10:39pm
12
Yeehah, good one thar lil feller!
“lil”??lil ”?!?!
…but I hear’d dey gots germs.
Typist
June 18, 2012, 12:26am
14
This thread is now documenting convincing evidence that we are indeed just germs.
