A recent article in Mother Jones described the work of Dr. Gilbert: "Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you've probably heard about the human microbiome. Research into the composition, function, and importance of the galaxy of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that, when we're healthy, live in symbiotic balance in and on us has become one of the fastest moving and most intriguing fields of scientific study."
Dr. Gilbert wrote: "There are a nonillion bacteria in the world - give or a take a few quadrillion. This almost incomprehensible number is greater than the number of stars in the known universe. Microbes are vital to the success of life on this planet. They perform the vast majority of all metabolic processes, and also control health in every living organism on this planet.
Dr. Gilbert has impressive credentials with the Argonne National Lab. He is the group leader for Microbial Ecology in the Biosciences Division, and manages the Earth Microbiome Project. And he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, and the Associate Director of the Institute for Genomic and Systems Biology.
This is Part TWO of TWO and the conclusion of his June 2015 talk. Dr. Gilbert begins by talking about birth and how a newborn child receives its first set of bacteria from the mother.
Many thanks to Dale Lehman from WZRD radio. He recorded Gilberts talk at the International House in Chicago on June 5, 2015.
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