Science
text: Eliška Selinger photo: Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences
BODILY PLANET
ACCORDING TO RECENT STUDIES, HUMAN CELLS ACCOUNT FOR ROUGHLY 47 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF CELLS IN THE HUMAN BODY. 47%! THE REMAINING 53 PER CENT BELONG TO BACTERIA. THAT’S A BIG NUMBER, BUT MUCH SMALLER THAN EARLIER ESTIMATES, WHICH SUGGESTED THAT BACTERIAL CELLS ACCOUNTED FOR MORE THAN TEN TIMES THE NUMBER OF HUMAN CELLS. EVEN SO, THE LATEST FINDINGS MEAN THAT EACH PERSON HOSTS SEVERAL KILOGRAMS OF BACTERIA, WHICH IN THEMSELVES INTRODUCE BETWEEN 2 TO 20 MILLION GENES INTO THE HUMAN BODY – ABOUT A HUNDREDFOLD MORE THAN HUMAN CELLS. ALTHOUGH DISTRESSING FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE OBSESSED WITH HYGIENE, THESE FINDINGS BRING NEW HOPE TO MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITH AS YET INCURABLE CONDITIONS. ARMED WITH THE LATEST TECHNOLOGIES, DIETICIANS AND NEUROSCIENTISTS ARE FOCUSING THE MICROSCOPE ON THE PREVIOUSLY UNIMAGINABLE COMPLEXITY BEHIND THE WORD ‘MICROBIOME’.
96
