Germs are everywhere. And we, as humans, have come up with ways to remove some of them from our day to day lives, like washing our hands or using hand sanitizer. But it turns out that there are germs, also called microbes, living throughout our entire body. The places that these microbes and bacteria live is called a microbiome. The amount of microbiomes there are in humans is not fully decided on, but the most common number is 5: oral, skin, vaginal, nasal, and, most commonly researched, gut. [1] Over the last 15 years of research, scientists have found surprising connections between human microbiomes and physiological health. Microbiome research is very dependent on computational capabilities, hence even though microbiomes were initially discovered in the late 1800s, they were not able to be analyzed until more recently. [2] While a lot has been discovered about microbiomes, there is still much more to be uncovered.
In addition to being in humans and other mammals, microbiomes are known to exist in other ecosystems. Similar to how they exist humans, soil-based microbiomes are compositions of microorganisms that live in the ground. Researchers have taken samples of soil to analyze their microbiome and found connections between those samples and the effects of climate change. [3] Understanding the connection and the ways that the microbes in the soil change and act can shine more light on the issues of climate change and potentially pose new ways to address the issue.
Find out how to analyze a microbiome here.
