Don’t bother showering anymore.
Despite collective efforts to forget, we already know that every human being is covered in a cloud of trillions of tiny, invisible bacteria from skin flakes and fart dust. But a new study suggests that the cloud of bacteria that surrounds you, called the microbiome, may actually be a microbial fingerprint of sorts because it varies from person to person.
Published Tuesday in PeerJ, the study found that “an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one.” Co-author James Meadow told Wired, “If I scratch my head, thousands of skin cells, cell fragments, bacteria, and fungi get airborne.”
Called "Humans differ in their personal microbial cloud," the study aimed to determine whether or not these clouds of liberated microbes—from both skin and gut microbiomes—could be detected, and if their DNA differed between subjects, according to Wired.
The study consisted of two experiments that tested volunteers using their laptops in a sterile room. For the first experiment, researchers used two rings that each contained six air filters (placed around the volunteer at shoulder height and just above floor height), and also placed petri dishes on the floor to collect fallen particles. The second experiment only used a ring at shoulder height to capture airborne particles, or bioaerosols.
Not only were participants identifiable from their bioaerosols and particles, but “bacterial assemblages were unique [study's emphasis]” to the participants, researchers found.
Study co-author Meadow is working with a San Francisco-based biotech company, which will use the findings to better detect diseases because they explain how contagions spread, Wired reported. Law enforcement agencies are also harnessing microbial clouds, using them as a way to identify and track suspects.
For better or worse, humans cannot escape their own bacteria, and this new study suggests that the microbial cloud is just an extension of ourselves. So let’s embrace it (but on second thought, take a shower).
