Crazy facts about bacteria . . .
- If the entire history of planet Earth were represented by a twelve hour clock (earth came into existence at midnight, and it’s noon right now), then bacteria have been around since 2:40 A.M. Humans have been around for the past 19 seconds. (Naked Science: Birth of the Earth)
- Bacteria and their relatives, the archaea, number at least five billion trillion trillion. If you could stop time long enough to line them all up nose to tail in a straight line, they’d stretch from here to the edge of the known universe (about ten billion light-years away). (Helium.com)
- Bacteria are everywhere. They’ve been found living two miles beneath the surface of the earth in a South African gold mine, more than a kilometer below the ocean floor, and floating about in the stratosphere 25 miles above the surface of the earth. (Science in Africa, New Scientist, Science Daily)
- 9 out of every 10 cells in and on your body are not you, they’re foreign microbes. (schuhlelewis.com , The Telegraph)
- Your gut contains approximately 4.5 pounds of bacteria. (Ultra-Gross)
- Your appendix actually DOES have a purpose: it’s a repository for gut bacteria to help you restore your intestinal flora in the case of diarrhea or other, ahem, colon flushing-style sicknesses. In a non-developed world without antibiotics, this is a pretty handy thing to have. (Natural News)
- You come out of your mother’s womb pretty well bacteria free. The journey through your mother’s vagina (and the accompanying exposure to the bacteria living there) is thought to be important to a newborn’s health. Babies born via C-section are more likely to develop allergies, asthma and other immune system–related troubles than are babies born vaginally. (U.S. News & World Report)
- Researchers think the makeup of our gut bacteria may be neither random nor uniform across human populations. Initial studies have found the composition of bacterial populations in our intestines fall generally into one of three “gut types”, not entirely dissimilar to human blood types. Not only that, but these researchers hypothesize that the gut type a person has can influence their likelihood of developing different disorders such as ulcers, obesity, hormonal based dysfunctions, and even autism. (NPR)
That’s all I have. Now go wash your hands, ok?
(Image from loxoscles.com)