Tabitha M. Powledge of On Science Blogs has some sort of obsession with the number of bacteria enfolded in each of us. She can't let it go. But she must. Apparently, the "fact" that nine out of ten cells in our bodies are microbes is not a fact after all, she writes.
Brace yourself: It looks like the correct ratio is 3 microbes for every human cell. "I am a bit mournful about this development," Powledge writes. "The idea of 10 microbes to every human cell is so much cooler than only 3 to 1."
And cool is what it's all about.
Fortunately, she's able to recover enough to point us to some interesting posts on how tweets affect a scientific paper's impact and whether vitamin E can slow the decline of Alzheimer's patients.
She also explores the not-exactly-accurate announcement by Illumina that it can now generate a human genome sequence for $1,000. All you need is 10 Illumina sequencers, which can be yours for $1 million apiece. And, of course, your $1,000 genome is just a sequence. Surely you wouldn't expect the medical analysis to be included at that price. What do you think this is, Costco?
-Paul Raeburn
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