0 Scientists Examine 100 Trillion Microbes in Human Feces

The human large intestine is a 5-foot long, dark, dank and twisting corridor whose repetitive contractions function to squeeze the last remaining drops of water and the final bits of nutrient from feces before expulsion from our bodies.


Aiding the large intestine in this task are trillions of microbes that reside in the gut, where they help digest foods we would otherwise have to avoid. In this way the bugs contribute to our overall health.
Some of these tiny settlers are with us from birth, imparted from our mothers, while others gradually colonize our bodies as we grow. This microbial community is as diverse as any found in Earths seas or soils, numbering up to 100 trillion individuals and representing more than 1,000 different species.


"This is the densest bacterial ecosystem known in nature," Jeffrey Gordon, a microbiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, told LiveScience. "The density of colonization of the distal gut is just enormous."
Now a significant chunk of genes from those microbes has been decoded.
Using fecal samples from two healthy adult volunteers who did not receive any antibiotics or other medications for a year prior to the study, Gordon and colleagues have described and analyzed more than 60,000 genes from each individual.
The teams findings, detailed in the June 2 issue of the journal Science, will help scientists better understand how these microscopic life forms perform their many functions. It will also help researchers determine whether the microbial communities we each carry inside are evolving as a result of changing diets and lifestyles.
A better understanding of these things could allow scientists to one day manipulate the microbial communities within us in order to improve health.
For example, an upcoming study by Buck Samuel, a graduate student in Gordons lab and a co-author in the current study, finds that one of the microbes whose genes were analyzed helps determine how much calories we absorb from the food we eat. Called Methanobrevibacter smithii, it eats up hydrogen waste products released by other microbes in our gut and converts it into methane gas, which we release, discreetly or otherwise.

0 Be careful 100 natural child accident while learning to use the toilet

Be caul, 100 natural child accident while learning to use the toilet - For parents who are teaching their children to use the toilet seat, you should be very caul and do not take it lightly. Dr. Benjamin Breyer found that the number of children who have accidents such as falls or accidents on their genitals when doing exercises fairly high disposable toilet every year.

Researchers found that during the years 2002 to 2010, the number of child visits to the ER due to an accident while learning to use the toilet seat continues to grow to 100 visits per year. Usually accidents happen when children learn to use the toilet to pee standing up, then close the toilet lid unwittingly and pinning their genitals.

"The children usually do not have quick lexes so that they can not avoid the things that do not want quickly," said Dr. Benjamin Breyer, lead researcher from the University of California, as reported by the NY Daily News.

Breyer claimed to be surprised to know the number of the number of patients admitted to the emergency room due to an accident in the toilet. He knows that 97 percent of the accidents are children under seven years old. Most accidents are sandwiched genitals.

Fortunately accidents while using the toilet does not get physically fatal. But not a few children who have become traumatized when using the toilet seat. It can at least be used as a lesson for the parents who are teaching their children to use the toilet seat.

For those who use a regular toilet (squat toilet) it seems there is nothing to worry about, but be caul not to slip when children learn to use the toilet.