We’ve completed sample collection and are now in the throes of analysis. This is the fun part – figuring out what it all means, making sense of the complexity. We want your thoughts, insights and participation in analyzing and interpreting these results – your contributions shouldn’t stop with sample donation. Get involved.








 

Big Results

We recently published our findings from the analysis of our initial batch of 60 participants. We approached the data much like an explorer approaches a newly discovered patch of rainforest; we started by asking very basic questions, namely what and how many species live there. Learn more and take a look at the most common species we found.



 

Still Chugging

So science in real life is slower than it is on TV. We still have hundreds of samples in process. If you swabbed your belly button in the last year, there’s a good chance you haven’t heard your personal results yet. We’re working as fast as we can and will contact you by email with the results. Do we have your most up-to-date contact info on file? Drop us a line at yourwildlife@gmail.com



 

You Asked for It

We’ve heard from many teachers interested in adapting Belly Button Biodiversity for their classrooms. Although we’re no longer collecting samples, we’re putting together the methods – particularly those for culturing belly button microbes on agar plates – in an easy-to-use guide that you can download here soon. Interested? Contact us at yourwildlife@gmail.com



 

It’s the Pits

Our collaborators at the Nature Research Center – Drs. Julie Horvath and Julie Urban – are taking the study of skin microbes in a funny place to the next level: the armpit! They’ll push our research into an evolutionary and behavioral direction, comparing human armpits to other primates and determining if one’s daily habits affect the microbes that grow there. Learn more here.


© Copyright Belly Button Biodiversity - Web work by Neil Mccoy Design