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Half of You Isn’t Human

That is, half your cells aren’t human. Instead, they belong to the menagerie of microbes that call your body home.

By Cody Cottier
May 6, 2021 2:00 PMMay 6, 2021 2:01 PM
Baby Microbiome, the infant gut microbiome, genetic material of all the microbes. 3d illustration
(Credit: Design_Cells/Shutterstock)

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It’s often said that the bacteria in our bodies outnumber us 10 to one. Better calculations in recent years have reined in that conclusion, but today’s estimates are hardly less astounding: the real ratio seems to be about one to one. Fifty percent of the cells that make up the entity you call “you” are, in fact, microbial.

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