They found 2,368 different species of bacteria...You will never guess where...

You may be surprised by what's living in your navel...

bodyodd.nbcnews.com...

What's inside your belly button? Probably dirt and sweat; possibly some lint, and perhaps even a piercing. But according to new research, which asked 66 men and women to swab their navels with a sterile Q-tip, the skin in study participants' belly buttons also contained an average of 67 different species of bacteria.

This creeps me out worse than bedbugs, and those creep me out plenty.

Why belly buttons? "It was a fun way to reach out to the public and teach them about the ecology and evolution of everyday life," says Rob Dunn, PhD, an associate professor of biology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who led the study. In other words, the navel is a novel, attention-getting device to study science.

Tell me you won't go wash your belly button extra hard right after reading this.

Two samples contained an extremely rare type of archaea, a single-cell organism never previously found on human skin. One of these samples came from a man who self-reported that he had not bathed or showered for several years -- yikes!

Even the cleanest belly button will still have bacteria you cannot reach without laser guided tweezers and a microscope.

Dunn said his research team will continue to study belly button bacteria and have collected more than 500 samples. But they have also started to look into the microbial diversity of underarms, and they are currently recruiting people interested in sampling the microbial communities found in their homes.

Happy digging!

BAW33

Well I'm going to have to think twice before I lick someone there.

reply to post by BrokenAngelWings33

Eeww, makes me wish I had an 'outie'

And this is why I always make sure to keep my belly button filled with peanut butter! Gives the little guys something to snack on besides me.

The downside? Squirrels and pigeons....

I wondered what that fluff was :-), do you not find it amazing our scientists have to be trusted with guidelines about our life and they have designed tests to prove the healthiest stuff for us to do,
Yet they still only understand 40% of our DNA and are still finding new bacteria on humans! should we trust this??

Ted
The sapien group

Sorry I meant to say them (scientists)

Ted

reply to post by BrokenAngelWings33


LOL. I am going to wash my belly button really well tonight. Very interesting.

Doesn't really matter, we get obsessed with everything needing to be sterilized around us... It's ridiculous, I can not wash my hands, have something to eat that smudges my fingers and i'll lick em after I don't care. The body can sustain exposure to bacterias if you let it be exposed. If you don't then your immune system doesn't get the chance to remember what type of bacteria or virus it is encountering.
Not disturbed not one bit.
Peace

Well so much for my convenient place to hold my martini olive while I browse ATS. Some times to much info can be a bad thing

Originally posted by Ghost375
Well I'm going to have to think twice before I lick someone there.

I'm pretty sure the fauna of some places you lick without thinking is much worse...

I always knew belly buttons were awesome and here is the proof. Belly buttons are microbial mansions

It is pretty amazing, all the life that lives upon us. It does not freak me out, it is a natural thing. The man not bathing for years makes me a little nervous but I will try not to judge