Your Home, Your Bacteria
10:10 minutes
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When you move into a new home, you might personalize it with your favorite paint color, different furnishings, and familiar knick-knacks. Research recently published in the journal Science indicates that redecoration extends to bacteria as well. After a few days, surfaces in a home begin to take on the distinct signature of a new resident’s microbiome—that is, the collection of bacteria that live on and in a person’s body. Jack Gilbert, an environmental microbiologist at Argonne National Laboratory and lead author of the study, is trying to develop a better understanding of the way people, bacteria, and the environment around them interact, from the kitchen floor to the greater Chicago area.
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Jack A. Gilbert
Dr. Jack Gilbert is a microbial ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission’s Microbial Conservation Specialist Group. He’s based in San Diego, California.
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About Charles Bergquist
As Science Friday’s director and senior producer, Charles Bergquist channels the chaos of a live production studio into something sounding like a radio program. Favorite topics include planetary sciences, chemistry, materials, and shiny things with blinking lights.