HARPERCOLLINGS PUBLISHERS, JUNE 2011
My body is crawling with life. Fungi live on my feet. Trillions of bacteria cling to my legs and up among my bits. In this mix live Staphylococcus hominis and aureus, which are found on my skin, and Enterococcus mundtii, the most common denizen of my belly button. But they are just the tip of the “life berg.”
Nearly two hundred species of bacteria have been found residing on human forearms alone. Some are probably bad; some, good; and some, essential. Others may simply be sojourners, pausing en route to some more distant shore. Inside my gut, there might be worms of several different species. There are certainly hundreds of species of microbes in my digestive tract upon which I rely to fully digest my ...
