In May, Discover Magazine released an article about what an exciting time it is to be an ecologist.  The cost of DNA sequencing has become so low, that identifying and sequencing the bacteria in the world is becoming a very common and informative practice.  Microbes in your home may be colonizing your body.

“James Scott, who studies molecular genetics at the University of Toronto, reported that the gut microbes of babies, as found in their poop, were also in the dust in the babies’ homes. It’s not clear whether this means that bacteria in the dust are colonizing the babies or vice versa—or both—but it’s still something of a surprise. Gut microbes don’t seem like the sort to thrive outside the body, as they tend to require an oxygen-free environment. But maybe the gut bacteria in the dust are in a dormant form, waiting to be absorbed into a new gut before flowering into life again.” Read more…