« Letters from the UK | Main | The Statesman's Endorsement » Hybrid HumansWe all know that we have "beneficial bacteria" in our bodies, but scientists are thinking harder about the "commensal" relationship between humans and bacteria. Commensal relationships are similar to symbiosis, but in symbiotic relationships both organisms benefit. In commensal relationships, one organism benefits from another without damaging or benefiting it. We have more than 500 different species of bacteria in our bodies, and this leads some scientists to think of humans as superorganisms, or "highly complex conglomerations of human, fungal, bacterial and viral cells." [Link] gut, they get very complex indeed. The information in the human genome itself, 3 billion jon posted this at 9:32 AM |
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