New Undiscovered Species Lurk Closer Than You Think!

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(Edited)

Ok, this is an experiment I was reading a few days ago and it really blew my mind on so many levels.

At first it feels a bit idiotic. Yet the results were imo mind blowing.

Enter... Project Belly Button 😅😂

Ever wondered what's lurking in your butt hole belly button? Other than dirt since eons ago?

Well, back in 2011 a bunch of researchers launched the Belly Button Biodiversity Project and set out to answer this question. And the results were more diverse than what you may expect.

Turns out belly button are really really dirty and house all kinds of microbiota.

In total they swabbed 60 belly buttons, a relatively small number... Yet t discovered over 2,300 unique species of bacteria, with possibly half of them being totally new to science.

Surprisingly, one belly button had a bacteria that previously was only known from soil in Japan. A place the volunteer had never been before! And two belly buttons came positive for extremophile bacteria that are known to thrive in ice caps and thermal vents, lmao 😂

On average, each belly button hosted 67 different species with not even one being common to every person. But eight were found on at least 70 percent of the sample.

Imo, the experiment was really cool and according to the news articles and press releases from that time there were plans to enroll more people.. The plan was to make it a citizen science experiment where you swabbed your belly button, mailed it to them and help the research. They even planned to run a similar project for arm pits!

Unfortunately, it seems like the idea was halted for whatever reason.. Probably a lack of funding which is a pity. Who knows what other kind of weird bacteria and stuff they would have found. I guess we will never know 😔

Here's a video about the project from that time...

Tldr, belly buttons are dirty. 😂

References & Further Reading

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26 comments
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You received an upvote of 98% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!

Please remember to contribute great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag to create another Precious Gem.

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Pretty interesting! How that can be associated to our health not sure!! hehe

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That’s nuts, you can find them with your millions daddy

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Now I know which one to clean first and thoroughly when I take a bath later 😅
!BBH
!pimp

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Albeit somewhat interesting, whenever I see these studies it feels like some scientists have too much free time... :P

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These days it's probably the opposite. Most do all kind of menial stuff 😆

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It's an interesting study. I guess we never know what will be in the bellybuttons.

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So my belly button has it's own ecosystem? Cool :D

!BBH

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As if belly buttons didn't feel dirty as heck anyways all the time, now there are undiscovered species living in there?

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Fascinating project in all reality! No one had done it before or even considered it, kudos to the mastermind of this one. They will never find funding for these kinds of things though, no profit to be made so no money to be invested. The one with the bacteria from Japan yet never been there, they must have been doing some kinky stuff with someone from Japan! lol
!DUO

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hmmmmmm, what about ppl that have outies? do they still get all the dirty stuff? 😉😎🤙

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Yes, the study had both inies and outies 😆

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