This talk is disconcerting, though the speaker says she is making you feel more powerful with her revelations.
Microbiologist Anne Madden says, “The diversity of life in our homes is more than a list of 100,000 new species…that is 100,000 new sources of solutions to human problems. It's hard to believe that anything that's so small or only has one cell can do anything powerful, but they can. These creatures are microscopic alchemists, with the ability to transform their environment with an arsenal of chemical tools. This means that they can live anywhere on this planet, and they can eat whatever food is around them. …,and they can produce waste products like oil and battery power and even tiny nuggets of real gold. They can transform the inedible into nutritive …”
Sounds good. Why should it be disconcerting. Here is why, “…touch your face…You're feeling you? Well, it's not quite true. You're actually feeling thousands of microscopic creatures that live on our face and fingers. You're feeling some of the fungi that drifted down from the air ducts today. They set off our allergies and smell of mildew. You're feeling some of the 100 billion bacterial cells that live on our skin. They've been munching away at your skin oils and replicating, producing the smells of body odour. You're likely even touching the faecal bacteria that sprayed onto you the last time you flushed a toilet, or those bacteria that live in our water pipes and sprayed onto you with your last shower…”
Killing superbugs
Madden gives examples, “I worked with researchers to dig in the dirt in people's backyards…we uncovered a microorganism that could make novel antibiotics, antibiotics that can kill the world’s worst superbugs. This was an awesome thing to find, but here's the secret: for the last 60 years, most of the antibiotics on the market have come from similar soil bacteria….so where you used to see dirt, now think of medication… A pond scum microorganism… if you feed it to mice, it vaccinates against PTSD. It vaccinates against fear. Where you used to see pond scum, now think of hope…So look at your finger again. Think about all those microscopic creatures that are unknown. How does your finger feel right now? A little bit powerful? That's because you're feeling the future…In the future, they might be able to make you sexier or smarter or perhaps live longer.”
Madden says that we have spent the past 100 years finding, “… human solutions to microbial problems, but the next 100 years will feature microbial solutions to human problems.”
Lady Macbeth did not know how universally prophetic she was when she exclaimed, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Or sanitize it!