Chapter 124
627 with approximately 100 trillion microbes
Carl Zimmer, "Tending the Body's Microbial Garden," New York Times, June 19, 2012.
628 3 million nonhuman genes
"Microbes Maketh Man," Economist, April 21, 2012, http://www.economist.com/node/21560559.
629 published the genetic sequencing of this community of bacteria
Human Microbiome Project Consortium, "A Framework for Human Microbiome Research," Nature, June 14, 2012.
630 much like blood types-that exist in all races and ethnicities
Robert T. Gonzalez, "10 Ways the Human Microbiome Project Could Change the Future of Science and Medicine," io9, June 25, 2012, http://io9.com/5920874/10-ways-the-human-microbiome-project-could-change-the-future-of-science-and-medicine.
631 All told, the team identified eight million
Rosie Mestel, "Microbe Census Maps Out Human Body's Bacteria, Viruses, Other Bugs," Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2012.
632 acquired immune system, particularly during infancy and childhood
James Randerson, "Antibiotics Linked to Huge Rise in Allergies," New Scientist, May 27, 2004, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn5047-antibiotics-linked-to-huge-rise-in-allergies.html.
633 "The microbial gut flora is an arm of the immune system"
Ibid.
634 which needs to learn to distinguish invaders from cells of the body itself
National Inst.i.tute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Understanding Autoimmune Diseases, September 2010, http://www.niams.nih.gov/health_info/autoimmune/default.asp.
635 contributing to the apparent rapid rise of numerous diseases
Martin Blaser, "Antibiotic Overuse: Stop the Killing of Beneficial Bacteria," Nature, August 25, 2011; Mette Nrgaard et al., Aarhus University Hospital, "Use of Penicillin and Other Antibiotics and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis: A Population-Based Case-Control Study," American Journal of Epidemiology 174, no. 8 (2011): 94548.
636 type 1 diabetes
Blaser, "Antibiotic Overuse."
637 multiple sclerosis
Nrgaard et al., "Use of Penicillin and Other Antibiotics and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis."
638 Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis
"Antibiotic Use Tied to Crohn's, Ulcerative Colitis," Reuters, September 27, 2011.
639 human immune system is not fully developed at birth
Zimmer, "Tending the Body's Microbial Garden."
640 develops and matures after pa.s.sage through the birth ca.n.a.l
Ibid.
641 Humans have the longest period of infancy and helplessness of any animal
Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009).
642 development of the brain following birth
David F. Bjorklund, Why Youth Is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007).
643 development and learning taking place in interaction with the environment
Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby.