Our Microbial Cloud

Microbes are everywhere and they make us who we are

Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash

Have you ever been next to someone and not felt right? Maybe you were uncomfortable? Maybe they smelled bad. Maybe they smelled good, even attractive? What is it? Is it their aura? Is it just they way they smell or the way you smell things? What attracts you to other people?

The Human Genome Project (HGP) made a slew of new discoveries about humans. Possibly the most interesting one is that we are more microbes than humans. Microbial cells outnumber human cells ten to one. Microbes affect us in many ways, from controlling our body odor to controlling cravings to controlling our sense of surroundings.

In 2015, when public knowledge of the HGP findings was popularized and the microbial Tree of Life had a major overhaul, scientists were studying groups of people’s microbes that were being exchanged outside of them. In other words, people have a “distinct” microbial cloud around them. (Gallagher,2015; Meadow et al., 2015). This is reminiscent of the Peanuts character, Pigpen with his cloud following him everywhere he goes:

We should all know that viruses are transferred through our breath… and other body fluids. And the closer you get to someone, the more likely you’ll catch what they have. The research that Meadows did discovered and confirmed that people always have a microbial cloud around them. (Meadows et al., 2015). Microbes are in us and on us. Some microbes inhabit the human gut, the skin, the oral cavity, and the respiratory tract. The dominant microbes making up these and other body parts are examined by Panther et al., who also discuss how diet and health factors affect the microbes in the body. (Panthee et al., 2022)

This microbial cloud study has become important for NASA as microbes could benefit or harm astronauts or equipment. John Love’s article on NASA’s website mentions some interesting information about microbes being discovered in space:

Researchers also found land and marine bacteria in cosmic dust samples collected during a spacewalk. These microbes may transfer from the upper atmosphere via the global electric circuit (a continuous movement of electric charge carriers such as ions) or they may have originated in space⁷. (Love, 2024)

Remember my previous article, ‘Microbes Are Going to Space…on purpose!’? In that article, I discussed that a crew was bringing microbes with them to study them at zero gravity. I guess they could have just grabbed some from their spacewalk.

Wrapping This Up

This microbial cloud has many implications aside from spreading sickness. These may include quorum sensing, quantum mechanics, microbial wave resonance, and frequencies emitted by the microbes to send signals to us, the hosts, to like, dislike, run away, or come closer to other people’s microbial clouds. These clouds may be our aura. I know that is considered paranormal or woo-woo, but maybe this is what people have been trying to explain all this time. Regardless, the next time you are in a crowd, on a bus or train, or anywhere near another human (of pets, yes, pets have microbe clouds, too!), see what you can pick up.

Leave a comment. Is this cool? Is this gross? What do you think about knowing that we all have microbial clouds?

Resources

Gallagher, J. (23 September 2015). Everyone Has A Microbial Cloud. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34314065

Love, J. (2024, JAN 18). Monitoring Microorganisms. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/monitoring-microorganisms/

Meadow, J. F., Altrichter, A. E., Bateman, A. C., Stenson, J., Brown, G., Green, J. L., & Bohannan, J. M. (2015). Humans differ in their personal microbial cloud. PeerJ, 3. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1258

Panthee, B., Gyawali, S., Panthee, P., & Techato, K. (2022). Environmental and Human Microbiome for Health. Life, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/life12030456. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8949289/

Zhang, J., Liu, W., Simayijiang, H., Hu, P., & Yan, J. (2023). Application of Microbiome in Forensics. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics, 21(1), 97-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gpb.2022.07.007