School Notes

Gut course

Regarding "Insight into insect symbiosis could help humans" (School of Public Health), it's hopeful that academia should better understand the good, the bad, and the ugly gut bacteria, of which the average human harbors 2-3 pounds numbering in the trillions -- more than the number of cells in the body. This, coupled with the gut's forming approximately 80% of the body's immune system, suggests that it's work well conceived to better understand these bugs' central role in human life, as well as the corollary implications for nutrition (and the lack thereof in most processed foods).

Samuel Butler observed, "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg." We might well ponder whether a human is simply bacteria's way of creating more bacteria. Symbiosis, indeed. Recalling a mantra of our youth, we are what we eat.

Steve Bemis '69
Ann Arbor, MI