Monday, July 27, 2009

Only 10% here

Microbes ‘R’ Us - Olivia Judson Blog - NYTimes.com

I'm not feeling very topical today, so just some more unusual facts from the New York Times:
The typical human is home to a vast array of microbes. If you were to count them, you’d find that microbial cells outnumber your own by a factor of 10. On a cell-by-cell basis, then, you are only 10 percent human. For the rest, you are microbial. (Why don’t you see this when you look in the mirror? Because most of the microbes are bacteria, and bacterial cells are generally much smaller than animal cells. They may make up 90 percent of the cells, but they’re not 90 percent of your bulk.)

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