Every nook and every cranny of our houses and flats is an invisible ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and archaea. And it's only now that we are beginning to get a true picture of this ecosystem.
Biologist Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University in Raleigh has conducted the biggest study of domestic microbial ecosystems to date. His team is sequencing the DNA on swabs sent to him by volunteers from 1430 houses and apartments across North America to identify what's living on door frames, pillows and kitchen counters. "Some live with goats, some live in fraternities with 40 other dirty stinky guys, some live with kids," says Dunn. "Every single one has microbial DNA on every surface we swabbed."
Dunn and his team discovered phenomenal diversity amongst the microbes. To sequence the full genomes of ...
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