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<blockquote data-quote="cheryl" data-source="post: 2360" data-attributes="member: 1"><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/quarantine-body-wonder-system-bacteria-180975299/" target="_blank">What Quarantine Is Doing to Your Body’s Wondrous World of Bacteria - Smithsonian</a>The germs, fungi and mites that grow on our hands, face, armpits and elsewhere have become stranded during the age of social distancinge may feel isolated now, in our homes, or apart in parks, or behind plexiglass shields in stores. But we are never alone. I’ve spent much of the last 20 years studying the many species with which we live: thousands of them, perhaps hundreds of thousands, including fungi, bacteria on our skin and in our guts, and animals ranging from the several species of Demodex mites that live in our pores to the spiders that ride with us from home to home.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; In ordinary times, no person is an island. We are connected to other people through touch and words but also through the exchange of species, most benign, some even beneficial—on our bodies, in our homes, and more generally in our daily lives. These species may be bacteria, fungi, protists, and even small animals. You kiss a loved one and transfer life from your lips to their cheek, a shimmer of species.But now we are aware that the kiss can be dangerous or even deadly. As we isolate ourselves in order to reduce the connections in the web, what happens to the whole society of viruses, bacteria, and mites that exists on and between us? What happens when each person, or at least each home, becomes an island?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="cheryl, post: 2360, member: 1"] [URL='https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/quarantine-body-wonder-system-bacteria-180975299/'][B]What Quarantine Is Doing to Your Body’s Wondrous World of Bacteria - Smithsonian[/B][/URL] [B]The germs, fungi and mites that grow on our hands, face, armpits and elsewhere have become stranded during the age of social distancing[/B] e may feel isolated now, in our homes, or apart in parks, or behind plexiglass shields in stores. But we are never alone. I’ve spent much of the last 20 years studying the many species with which we live: thousands of them, perhaps hundreds of thousands, including fungi, bacteria on our skin and in our guts, and animals ranging from the several species of [I]Demodex[/I] mites that live in our pores to the spiders that ride with us from home to home. In ordinary times, no person is an island. We are connected to other people through touch and words but also through the exchange of species, most benign, some even beneficial—on our bodies, in our homes, and more generally in our daily lives. These species may be bacteria, fungi, protists, and even small animals. You kiss a loved one and transfer life from your lips to their cheek, a shimmer of species. But now we are aware that the kiss can be dangerous or even deadly. As we isolate ourselves in order to reduce the connections in the web, what happens to the whole society of viruses, bacteria, and mites that exists on and between us? What happens when each person, or at least each home, becomes an island? [/QUOTE]

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