"You are your microbes" is the message from UO biologists in a TED Ed video and TEDx talk.
Biologists Jessica Green and Karen Guillemin produced this animated TED Ed video to teach kids about the ways their bodies host millions of bacterial organisms.
Another UO biologist, Brendan Bohannan, had a similar message for adults in his TEDx talk, delivered on campus last February.
While acknowledging a certain yuck factor to realizing that our bodies are teeming with microbial life, Bohannan promises in this talk to "engage you in your disgust" and demonstrate that "to fully appreciate what it is to be human is to recognize that each of us is an ecosystem."
Jessica Green has also delivered a TED talk on her research into microbes in buildings, especially hospitals. She's found that, while mechanical ventilation does get rid of many types of microbes, the ones left in the hospital are much more likely to be pathogens. Green is a TED Fellow.
