The fauna of far Omphalos

This appeared a while ago in the New Scientist. It may not be the hottest of news but I couldn’t resist blogging it!

According to the Belly button Diversity project the human navel should be designated as a bacterial nature reserve. Initial results indicate that there are , it seems. The first round of DNA results indicate that more than 1400 bacterial strains live in the human belly button, 662 of these could not even be classified to family and may be new to science

The project was conceived as a light-hearted exercise in science communication, but is making a serious contribution to the understanding of microbial diversity. .. Results like this reflect our ignorance of microbial diversity, team leader Jiri Hulcr.who likens reactions to the first round of belly button results to the astonishment of the first European explorers seeing African big game


While I have forgotten virtually every piece of microbiology I learned at Birkbeck college between 1989 and 1990 it is still fascinating stuff. It is good to know that one’s belly button is teeming with life.