About
You are alive, but just how alive? We know that species live under our beds or in our backyards. But how many living organisms are on a square centimeter of your skin? What do they do, and how they differ from those of your neighbor? Very little is known about the life that breathes all over us. Each person's microbial jungle is so rich, colorful, and dynamic that in all likelihood your body hosts species that no scientist has ever studied. Your navel may well be one of the last biological frontiers. It is time then, to explore.
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In the Media
The biodiversity of our body has been covered on the web, radio and now television. Want to know more about exploring the biodiversity of your body? Watch the on-line interview with project leader Jiri Hulcr, and then listen in on an in-depth radio interview with researchers Jiri Hulcr and Andrea Lucky. Find out even more about the predators, parasites and partners that call your body home and have shaped human evolution in researcher Rob Dunn's brand new book titled "The Wild Life of Our Bodies."
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First Results!
We have posted results from the first participants for whom we have completed the study of their belly button bacteria. For each participant, what we are listing the bacterial species identified on the basis of the genes present in the slurry of belly button material donated by participants to science. These samples were very diverse, incredibly diverse really, with a total of more than 1400 species from fewer than a hundred samples. How many species might be detected as we expand to a thousand samples?
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