Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
Interesting interview
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/18/49043...ncing-the-ecosystem-of-the-microbes-within-us
Ed Yong, welcome to FRESH AIR. So as you say, our body is really an ecosystem. What are some of the different communities of microbes on and in our bodies?
ED YONG: Well, there are tens of trillions of them all together, but they vary from one part to the other because, for example, my forearm is a quite a dry environment. It's a bit parched like a desert whereas something like my mouth or the inside of my nose is a hot and humid environment that's more like a rain forest. And each of these places harbors a very different community of microbes.
GROSS: And a lot of those bacteria - a lot of those microbes are good guys, helping your body do what it needs to do. But as you point out, if one of the good guy bacteria gets into the wrong spot, it becomes a bad guy.
YONG: That's right. We've had this long-standing idea that microbes are germs, are enemies that we need to destroy lest they destroy us. But actually we're coming to realize that many of these microbes are profoundly important for our lives. But I wanted to get across in the book that there isn't really any such thing as a good microbe or a bad microbe. They just live with us. They are our partners in life and they can often do us tremendous amounts of good. They can help to digest our food and tune our immune system and protect us from disease. But if they get in the wrong place or if our relationship with them breaks down, then they might also do us harm.
GROSS: So when we're talking about the microbes in the microbiome, obviously we're talking about bacteria. What else are we including in that?
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/18/49043...ncing-the-ecosystem-of-the-microbes-within-us
Ed Yong, welcome to FRESH AIR. So as you say, our body is really an ecosystem. What are some of the different communities of microbes on and in our bodies?
ED YONG: Well, there are tens of trillions of them all together, but they vary from one part to the other because, for example, my forearm is a quite a dry environment. It's a bit parched like a desert whereas something like my mouth or the inside of my nose is a hot and humid environment that's more like a rain forest. And each of these places harbors a very different community of microbes.
GROSS: And a lot of those bacteria - a lot of those microbes are good guys, helping your body do what it needs to do. But as you point out, if one of the good guy bacteria gets into the wrong spot, it becomes a bad guy.
YONG: That's right. We've had this long-standing idea that microbes are germs, are enemies that we need to destroy lest they destroy us. But actually we're coming to realize that many of these microbes are profoundly important for our lives. But I wanted to get across in the book that there isn't really any such thing as a good microbe or a bad microbe. They just live with us. They are our partners in life and they can often do us tremendous amounts of good. They can help to digest our food and tune our immune system and protect us from disease. But if they get in the wrong place or if our relationship with them breaks down, then they might also do us harm.
GROSS: So when we're talking about the microbes in the microbiome, obviously we're talking about bacteria. What else are we including in that?