Why is ScienceOnline a meeting like no other? Because it’s the sort of meeting where a biologist named Rob Dunn can set up shop in the lobby to ask for samples of bellybutton shmutz that he can analyze for biological diversity. Not only is it a place where such a person will not be hustled out by security, but it’s a place where a whole bunch of people respond by grabbing Q-tips to do their part for science. And you can bet every last bit of your bellybutton lint that I was right up near the front of the line.
Ten days later, my sample is now thriving nicely on a Petri dish, awaiting a more detailed analysis of its DNA. And here are the rest of the samples from the meeting.
All I can say is, #974, what is going on in there?
January 25th, 2011 at 9:15 am
What does it say about me that I am devastated that I couldn’t be there on the day they were testing bellybuttons?
January 25th, 2011 at 9:32 am
yikes…so why that? you know it is lint from your clothes and dead skin???? or do you?
[CZ: I removed the lint before sampling--so these are regular resident of my skin.]
January 25th, 2011 at 9:58 am
I have a *sneaky* suspicion that #974 might be that guy who hasn’t bathed in EIGHT years! Did you talk to him?! Er, interesting.
You and readers might be interested in the chat I had with 2 from Rob Dunn’s Belly Button Biodiversity team, Drs. Jiri Hulcr and Andrea Lucky, on our latest Science Cabaret on Air podcast: http://sciencecabaret.podomatic.com/
Thanks for sharing your microbes! It’s fun to compare!
January 25th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
I think the next Carnal Carnival has to be people all blogging about their belly button lint.
January 25th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
We all contain multitudes.
January 25th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
#974 has gone public, at least indirectly (compare with the samples at http://tinyurl.com/4ds4xvx). Maybe spending all that time up in the tropical canopy has something to do with it.
But I’m jealous — my sample doesn’t seem to be ready yet.
January 25th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Its true, he did it. Actually, I helped Carl with this procedure — a bit of assistance in the men’s room, probably best spare you the linty details — and trust he’ll list me among the authors when the paper comes out.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:29 am
[...] See microbes grown from your bellybutton lint (via Carl Zimmer). [...]
April 1st, 2011 at 12:51 pm
[...] interested in comparing my samples with those of others. This, for example, is what grew from the Q-tip that science writing luminary Carl Zimmer poked into his navel when Hulcr’s team set up shop [...]
July 3rd, 2011 at 12:42 am
[...] the laboratory of Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University. After a few weeks, Hulcr sent me a photo of a Petri dish in which some of the bacteria from my bellybutton were thriving. Then Hulcr and [...]