Page 53 - BBC Focus - August 2017

MICROBIAL
FINGER-
PRINTING

It’s a slightly unsettling
thought that each of
us sheds around 30
million bacterial cells
from our bodies every
hour. They waft into
the air and cling to
objects we’ve
touched, like furniture
and mobile phones.
The community of
microbes that live on
and in our bodies, our
microbiome, is also
unique. Soon,
criminals may be
linked to a crime scene
by the trail of bacteria
they haplessly leave
behind. In one study,
Dr James Meadow,
then at the University
of Oregon, found that
people could be
identified simply from
the invisible cloud of
bacteria they left in
the air – even when
the air was sampled
four hours after they
had left the room.