Micro-Organisms are not irrelevant, or distinctly separate, or exclusively inimical to Macro-Organisms
Here is a mini-article I found in my email because I subscribe to Joseph Mercola’s newsletter. It states that there are more cells and genes within your own body that are non-human, than there are cells and genes that are human. I had heard of this fact earlier but I hadn’t found it so succinctly summarized.
“The crook of your elbow is a special ecosystem that provides a bountiful home to six tribes of bacteria. Even after you wash, there are still 1 million bacteria living on every square centimeter.
These bacteria are what biologists call commensals, helpful rather than harmful organisms. They moisturize your skin by processing the raw fats that it produces.
The bacteria were discovered as part of the human microbiome project, a study researching all of the various microbes that live in people. The project is in its early stages, but has already established that the bacteria in the human microbiome collectively possess at least 100 times as many genes as the 20,000 or so in the human genome.
The bacterial cells also outnumber human cells by 10 to 1.
Humans depend on their microbiome for essential functions, including digestion, leading microbiologists to conclude that a person should really be considered a superorganism.”
Bonnie Bassler: The secret, social lives of bacteria
not to self: include prince charles quote about coming back as a bacteria and killing 80%