Nature

M is for Microbiome

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Who does not love the notion that we exist primarily as an environment for bacteria and viruses to live? I know I do and I am.

As we are aliens on planet bacteria it is hardly surprising that our hosts live all over us in return for letting us live here. In fact we probably would not survive here without their help.

It is not known just how many billions of them live on and in our bodies. It is popularly thought that the bacteria outnumber human cells in the body by 10 to 1 but that figure is disputed and it may be that the numbers of bacteria and human cells are about equal. The numbers reduce briefly after a bowel movements but increase with just about everything we touch.

Not to mention the animals that live on us.

Chorlton to Dunham Massey

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April’s 30 Days of Biking came and went without our active participation. Our biking is mostly a daily commute to work and occasional shopping trips. But coinciding time off and some sunshine inspired us to venture out last week. Being new to the area we are still exploring various routes and are grateful for knowledge and insights shared by local bike bloggers (Note to self: Remember to sponsor Lorenza.) From the map we reckoned we could get along the [wikipop]towpath[/wikipop] on the [wikipop]Bridgewater canal[/wikipop] to Dunham Massey. So we set off to explore:

The Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle have produced a video that pretty much says it all in under three minutes:

Dragonfly: almost emerged

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We spotted a dragonfly trying to emerge from its nymph skin but the nymph had not attached itself securely to a reed….

…and so it struggled to free itself…

Get the Flash Player to see this video.


Once freed it sat recuperating for a while; so I stopped filming and it immediately took off into the summer sky…. somedays nothing seems to go right.