The Economist (August 18)
“People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too.” Convention holds that the body is comprised of 10 trillion cells and some 23,000 genes. Some scientists are coming to view humans differently, as “superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.” These revolutionaries believe that “in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes.” They aren’t freeloaders. They are “fully paid-up members of a community of which the human ‘host’ is but a single (if dominating) member.”
“People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too.” Convention holds that the body is comprised of 10 trillion cells and some 23,000 genes. Some scientists are coming to view humans differently, as “superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.” These revolutionaries believe that “in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes.” They aren’t freeloaders. They are “fully paid-up members of a community of which the human ‘host’ is but a single (if dominating) member.”
Tags: 10 trillion cells, 100 trillion bacteria, Human body, Superorganisms
