Suhani's Talk : Belly Button Bacteria

Have you ever wondered what inside your belly button?

The main idea of this article, is that scientists have found 2,368 bacterial species in our belly button. Gross! The belly button has captured the imagination for centuries.The belly button is a fun habitat filled with living organisms that we don't know much about. It's less exposed and gets washed less often than other areas of skin, so the bacterial community in the umbilicus is less disturbed.The Researchers at North Carolina State University began the Belly Button Biodiversity Project around last year to learn more about the kinds of bacteria that grow in your belly button. They swabbed 500 belly buttons and analyzed 60 samples with a surprising discovery. They found 2,368 bacterial species and 1,458 which may be new to science. Some of the bacterial discoveries were very strange. One man harbored a species common in soil in Japan-where he has never been. Another person had a bacteria that typically thrives at the Polar ice caps. Scientists want to hopefully be able to collect thousands of samples. With the DNA collected it might provide insight into the role of the belly button bacteria play in our health. The authors purpose of this article was to help us undertand that our belly buttons can play a huge role in our health and that we might have bacteria in our belly buttons that could be new to science itself.