Your body / DAY 03 OF 40
You are not ten times more bacteria.
A popular body fact needed a recount.
Here's the strange part.
The claim that your bacteria outnumber your own cells ten to one needed a recount. A revised calculation for a reference adult put the ratio nearer 1.3 to one. It combines estimates of bacterial density, colon volume and human cell counts; nobody counted every cell in a whole person. The useful takeaway is a corrected order of magnitude, not a personal census. (PLOS Biology, via PubMed Central)
The roughly 1.3-to-1 estimate refers to a reference adult and varies between people. It is not a universal exact ratio.
REALITY CHECK · TRUE OR FALSE?
Your microbes would like a recount.
The revised ratio is an exact number shared by every person.
Go straight to the receipts.
Curious about the methods, dates or details? Open the original source and keep the caveat in view.
ORIGINAL SOURCEPLOS Biology, via PubMed CentralOpen publication ↗NEXT IN THE 40-DAY TRAIL / DAY 04Cathedral glass is not slowly melting. ↗