Sbagliando s'impera

Nonostante parole come onfaloscopia (la «pratica ascetica diffusa presso i mistici orientali, consistente nel meditare fissando il proprio ombelico.» secondo il Vocabolario Treccani), la contemplazione del proprio ombelico è considerata l’epitome della frivolezza e dell’accidia.

dailymail.co.uk / photonica

Non così per la scienza, per la quale nessun oggetto di studio è troppo umile e vacuo. La North Carolina State University e il Museo di scienze naturali della North Carolina hanno avviato un progettio sulla flora batterica dell’ombelico, coinvolgendo un piccolo esercito di volontari disposti a farsi infilare un cottonfioc nell’ombelico (senza ridere e senza arrossire, suppongo). Se volete visitare il loro sito, lo trovate qui.

Da pochi giorni, il team dell’Università statale della North Carolina ha pubblicato un articolo scientifico su PLOS ONE, un’importante rivista scientifica online: “A Jungle in There: Bacteria in Belly Buttons are Highly Diverse, but Predictable“. L’articolo può essere scaricato liberamente e gratis, ma se vi basta un rapido riassunto, ne trovate uno qui: Navel Bugs | The Scientist Magazine®.

A survey of the microbial life in 60 volunteer’s belly buttons has come up with more than 2,000 bacterial and archaeal species, most of which exist on only a fraction of the population, according to a report published this week (November 7) in PLOS ONE.

“[We] can now predict which bacteria tend to be frequent and common in belly buttons,” lead researcher Robert Dunn, of North Carolina State University said in an interview for a PLOS ONE blog. “Gender doesn’t seem to matter, nor does age, nor does innie/outie, nor does where you live now or where you were born.”

The team of researchers sequenced small fragments of each microbe’s genome to identify the diversity of microbes in each belly button. Each volunteer harbored an average of 67 different types of bacteria, and the vast majority of the 2,188 species found were only present in six or fewer belly buttons. One of the volunteers, Dunn said, had not bathed in years, which yielded a belly button sample that not only had bacteria present, but two species of archaea, which were rare in the study.

Dunn says that he and his team are continuing their navel research, next sampling 600 belly buttons, which could reveal more information about our personal germs.

the-scientist.com